Institute of Public Affairshttp://www.desmogblog.com/taxonomy/term/104/all
enAustralian MP George Christensen Heading To Las Vegas For Heartland Institute Climate Denial Conferencehttp://www.desmogblog.com/2014/06/12/australian-mp-heading-las-vegas-heartland-institute-climate-denial-conference
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/christensen.jpg?itok=_mpQKzIu" width="170" height="226" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><span class="caps">AN</span> Australian Federal <span class="caps">MP</span> is planning to join some of the world’s noisiest deniers of the science of climate change at a conference in Las Vegas in a few weeks time.</p>
<p>George Christensen, the National Party member for Dawson in the coal-friendly state of Queensland, will be hanging around the Mandelay Bay Resort with a rag-tag bunch of mostly long-retired academics and well paid think-tank associates for the <a href="http://desmogblog.com/heartland-institute">Heartland Institute</a> <a href="http://climateconference.heartland.org/">conference</a>, starting on 7 July.</p>
<p>The Heartland Institute, funded over the years by fossil fuel corporations and conservative philanthropists, is itself one of America’s loudest climate science denial organisations. <span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">This will be the organisation’s ninth gathering of climate sceptics, denialists and fossil fuel apologists.</span></p>
<p>Before its 2012 conference, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2012/may/04/heartland-institute-global-warming-murder" target="_blank">Heartland took out a billboard advertisement</a> with a picture of terrorist and triple murderer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kaczynski" target="_blank">Ted “unabomber” Kaczynski</a> next to the words: “I still believe in Global Warming. Do you?”</p>
<p>Just to push the envelope further, the institute <a href="http://heartland.org/press-releases/2012/05/03/do-you-still-believe-global-warming-billboards-hit-chicago" target="_blank">issued a press release</a> stating: “Of course, not all global warming alarmists are murderers and tyrants.”</p>
<p>Glad we got that one cleared up.</p>
<p>Christensen has put his own “sceptical” views on climate change on the record in the past. He is not sure that humans can cause climate change.</p>
<p>In his <a href="http://www.georgechristensen.com.au/FixtheBruce/tabid/79/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/123/First-speech.aspx" target="_blank">maiden speech</a> to Australia’s Parliament, Christensen said: “Despite what the political and media elite tell us to think, the truth is the science on climate change is not settled.”</p>
<p>In November 2013, <a href="http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansardr%2F0f5efc81-3e5b-496c-81dd-93d95de14659%2F0172%22" target="_blank">Christensen told Parliament</a> that his doubts about climate change came from “the well-publicised antics” of climate scientists when thousands of private emails were illegally hacked from Britain’s the University of East Anglia and then published. </p>
<p>Numerous investigations into the so-called “climategate” affair found there had been no scientific misconduct, but this news obviously had not reached Christensen.</p>
<p>Christensen also promoted Heartland's climate change reports which he said were from “real climate scientists” and showed “the science is nowhere near to being settled”.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansardr%2Fbb3ef167-e84b-40fc-bff9-814fb0e492d2%2F0166%22" target="_blank">Parliament in February</a>, he downplayed a spate of “so-called record heat waves” by saying other parts of the globe had experienced “record cold”. <span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">In fact, </span><a href="http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/news/ncdc-releases-january-2014-global-climate-report" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;" target="_blank">according to the <span class="caps">US</span> National Climate Data Center</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">, January 2014 was the globe’s fourth hottest since records began in 1880 and was the “347th consecutive month with a global temperature above the 20th century average”.</span></p>
<p>I wanted to know more about Christensen’s trip to the Heartland conference and his views on climate change, so I emailed his press officer. Here’s what I asked.</p>
<!--break-->
<blockquote>
<p>1. Why are you attending the conference? </p>
<p>2. Right now, what are your own thoughts on the causes of climate change? Do you think humans cause it?</p>
<p>3. How much of the conference will you be attending (you're down to speak on July 9) and how is the trip being financed?</p>
<p>4. How did your attendance come about? Were you invited or did you ask to attend?</p>
<p>5. The Heartland Institute came in for criticism at its conference in 2012 with a billboard campaign featuring a picture of unabomber Ted Kaczynski beside the words “I still believe in Global Warming. Do you?”. An accompanying press release stated : “The people who still believe in man-made global warming are mostly on the radical fringe of society. This is why the most prominent advocates of global warming aren’t scientists. They are murderers, tyrants, and madmen.” What's your view of these sentiments and did they make you pause before deciding to attend this conference?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>When I chased up the email, Christensen’s media officer told me by phone he would not be responding to my questions. <span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">I was told there was “no point talking to a climate activist blog” and they could “not find anywhere where you have not pilloried the views of someone who does not think like you do”.</span></p>
<p>Ouch. </p>
<p>So where does Christensen get his ideas about climate change from? </p>
<p>One revealing document is <a href="http://www.finance.gov.au/publications/parliamentarians-reporting/docs/P31/CHRISTENSEN_George.pdf" target="_blank">Christensen’s Parliamentary expenses report from 2012</a> listing 11 climate change and environmental policy books bought by his office. </p>
<p>Titles include <em>The Great Global Warming Blunder: How Mother Nature Fooled The World's Top Climate Scientists</em> by Roy Spencer; <em>The Real Global Warming Disaster: Is The Obsession With 'Climate Change' Turning Out To Be The Most Costly Scientific Blunder In </em>History by Christopher Booker and <em>Killing The Earth To Save It: How Environmentalists Are Ruining The Planet, Destroying The Economy And Stealing Your Jobs </em>by James Delingpole.</p>
<p>Six of the books were bought <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/archive/national-affairs/coalitions-climate-change-sceptic-choice-for-committee-seen-as-a-snub-for-hunt/story-fn99tjf2-1226138248389" target="_blank">two months before Christensen was appointed by the then opposition to sit on a key committee</a> to examine carbon price legislation.</p>
<p>Christensen’s office also bought 25 copies of Australian sceptic and mining entrepreneur Professor Ian Plimer’s book <em>How To Get Expelled From School: A guide to climate change for pupils, parents and punters</em>. </p>
<p>The previous government’s Department of Climate Change issued a <a href="http://www.climatechange.gov.au/accurate-answers-professor-ian-plimer" target="_blank">blow-by-blow rebuttal of Plimer’s book</a>, saying it was “misleading” and “based on inaccurate or selective interpretation of the science”.</p>
<h6>
Viva Las Vegas</h6>
<p>During the two-day Las Vegas conference, Christensen is scheduled to join <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/patrick-michaels">Patrick Michaels</a>, of the Cato Institute and the author of another of those books, to present some awards.</p>
<p>Christensen is also listed to sit down with fellow Australians for a panel session on the “global warming debate in Australia”.</p>
<p>Christensen will be joined by one of his own constituents, Dr <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/bob-carter" target="_blank">Bob Carter</a>, a “science policy advisor” for the Melbourne-based climate science denialist think tank the Institute of Public Affairs (<span class="caps">IPA</span>).</p>
<p>Carter <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/07/09/australian-university-dumps-bob-carter-advisor-multiple-global-climate-science-denial-groups" target="_blank">advises more than a dozen climate science denialist organisations</a> around the world. </p>
<p>In February 2012, internal Heartland Institute documents revealed <a href="http://www.readfearn.com/2012/02/bob-carter-responds-to-heartland-leak/" target="_blank">Carter was to be paid $1667 a month for his work on its project</a> to produce reports to directly challenge the findings of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. </p>
<p>Another panel member joining Christensen is Jennifer Marohasy, a former senior fellow with the <span class="caps">IPA</span>.</p>
<p>Marohasy is currently a research fellow at Central Queensland University — a post funded by the “B. Macfie Family Foundation”. </p>
<p>Bryant Macfie is a Perth-based philanthropist and climate science sceptic. In 2009 the university accepted $195,000 from Macfie and in 2012 the <a href="http://www.cqu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/71415/CQUniversity-Annual-Report-2012.pdf" target="_blank"><span class="caps">CQU</span> annual report</a> said he had renewed his “significant support”.</p>
<p>In 2008, Macfie made a $350,000 gift to another university – the University of Queensland – that was facilitated by the <span class="caps">IPA</span> and criticised by some <span class="caps">UQ</span> academics.</p>
<p>When making the donation, Macfie claimed science had been damaged by “environmental activism” and wrote, “<a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/opinion/blessed-are-the-sceptics/story-e6frgcko-1111116263665" target="_blank">the crucifix has been replaced by the wind turbine</a>”.</p>
<p>Marohasy was working for the <span class="caps">IPA</span> at the time and she defended the donation<span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> in a story in </span><a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/archive/news/dispute-over-climate-sceptic-uni-grant/story-e6frg6oo-1111116267330" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;" target="_blank">The Australian</a>.</p>
<p>The final name to join Christensen on the conference panel is William Kininmonth, who is described as a “consulting climatologist with the Australasian Climate Research Institute”.</p>
<p>The “<a href="http://abr.business.gov.au/SearchByAbn.aspx?abn=81287283607" target="_blank">Australasian Climate Research Institute</a>” is actually Kininmonth’s personal business trading name. It is an “institute” with no business premises, no employees and no website.</p>
<p>The Heartland Institute points out that Kininmonth was the head of the National Climate Centre at Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology for 12 years from 1985 to 1998. <span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">While this is true, his job was largely irrelevant to the study of climate change.</span></p>
<p>The bureau itself has <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/australian-meteorology-bureau-corrects-record-former-research-head-william-kininmonth-s-actual-climate-change-experience" target="_blank">previously released a statement clarifying</a> that during Kininmonth’s tenure, the centre did not do any research on climate change and was instead mainly responsible for collecting observations of Australia’s rainfall and temperature. The bureau said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The processes and methodologies developed within the National Climate Centre have established that Australia has significantly warmed since 1910. A warming trend was established and published by the National Climate Centre during the period of 1985 to 1998.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Other notable <a href="http://climateconference.heartland.org/speakers/" target="_blank">Heartland climate conference speakers</a> include Patrick Moore, who Heartland bills as “Founder, Greenpeace” despite <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/about/history/Patrick-Moore-background-information/" target="_blank">Greenpeace making clear several years ago that Moore in fact wasn’t a founder</a>.</p>
<p>British climate science <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/planet-oz/2013/sep/13/climate-change-science-minister-dennis-jensen-monckton-questionnaire">denialist and “birther”</a> Lord <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/christopher-monckton">Christopher Monckton</a> will also take to the stage in Las Vegas.</p>
<p>There are lots of places where George Christensen could go to inform himself and his constituents on climate change. The Mandelay Bay Resort and Casino in the first week of July is not one of them.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16889">george christensen</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/821">Heartland Institute</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/622">bob carter</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16890">las vegas</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4367">Jennifer Marohasy</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16891">bryant macfie</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/939">climate change</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16892">2014 international climate chnage conference</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/ipa">IPA</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/institute-of-public-affairs">Institute of Public Affairs</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5718">William Kininmonth</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7181">Patrick Moore</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1245">lord christopher monckton</a></div></div></div>Thu, 12 Jun 2014 14:50:16 +0000Graham Readfearn8216 at http://www.desmogblog.comTax Breaks In Australia To Fund Climate Misinformation Bookhttp://www.desmogblog.com/2014/04/14/tax-breaks-australia-fund-climate-misinformation-book
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/ipa%20book.jpg?itok=m-1KrQWl" width="200" height="137" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>It's amazing what qualifies for a tax break in Australia these days.</p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The climate science misinformation promotion unit at the <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/tags/institute-of-public-affairs">Institute of Public Affairs</a>, a Melbourne-based “free market” think tank, are currently passing the hat around to raise cash to publish a book on climate change.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The <span class="caps">IPA</span> has been pushing and promoting climate science denial since the late 1980s, when it published an article in its magazine asking if there really was a greenhouse effect.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">According to an email to supporters earlier this month from the <span class="caps">IPA</span>’s executive director John Roskam, the think tank has raised $144,545 towards a $175,000 target to publish a book </span><em style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://thefacts2014.ipa.org.au/" target="_blank">Climate Change: The Facts 2014</a>.</em></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Roskam reminded supporters that their donation for the book would be “tax deductible” and those prepared to part with $400 or more more would even get their name on the back cover.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The list of chapter authors is a predictable line up of denialists and contrarians picked from the blogosphere, conservative media outlets and the associates of secretly funded conservative think tanks.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">They include <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/nigel-lawson" target="_blank">Nigel Lawson</a>, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/stewart-franks" target="_blank">Stewart Franks</a>, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/william-kininmonth" target="_blank">Bill Kininmonth</a>, Mark Steyn, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/donna-laframboise" target="_blank">Donna Laframboise</a>, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/patrick-michaels" target="_blank">Pat Michaels</a>, Jennifer Marohasy, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/andrew-bolt" target="_blank">Andrew Bolt</a>, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/richard-lindzen" target="_blank">Richard Lindzen</a>, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/joanne-nova" target="_blank">Jo Nova</a>, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/anthony-watts" target="_blank">Anthony Watts</a>, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/james-delingpole" target="_blank">James Delingpole</a>, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/rm-bob-carter" target="_blank">Bob Carter</a>, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/ross-mckitrick" target="_blank">Ross McKitrick</a> and <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/ian-plimer" target="_blank">Ian Plimer</a>.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Yep. A few Aussies will have slightly fatter tax refunds (or thinner bills) in exchange for funding climate science denialism and contrarianism from a list of usual suspects.</span></p>
<!--break-->
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">That means government-endorsed tax breaks to promote the work of James Delingpole — a <span class="caps">UK</span> writer and “interpreter of interpretations” who thinks that climate research is a “junk science boondoggle” and who has compared the wind industry to a pedophile ring.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The <span class="caps">IPA</span> will surely be crossing its fingers that Delingpole’s selection of “facts” <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/09/12/undiscerning-climate-science-bookshelf" target="_blank">improves from his 2012 book Killing The Earth To Save It</a>, published by Connor Court (where <span class="caps">IPA</span> executive director John Roskam is on the editorial board).</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">There, Delingpole sourced a passage from a website called “Green Agenda” which he described as “probably [the] best analysis” of the Club of Rome’s influence on environmental policies.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The “Green Agenda” website is run by fundamentalist Christian “end of times” preachers who warn, amongst many other things, that we should all be watching out for “<a href="http://www.watchmanspost.com/endtimes/endtimestimeline.html" target="_blank">four Angels and three 'Frog-like' evil spirits</a>”.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Those tax incentives will benefit the <span class="caps">IPA</span>-endorsed opinions of Mark Steyn, a Canadian conservative currently being sued for libel by climate change scientist Dr. Michael Mann.</span></p>
<p>Or a teeny bit less in the Australian government’s tax pool so that Ian Plimer, a geologist and mining industry director, can tell you – again - that climate change isn’t caused by increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide.</p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Research has found that <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/03/20/research-reveals-almost-all-climate-science-denial-books-linked-conservative-think-tanks" target="_blank">almost all books sceptical of the risks of human-caused climate change have links to conservative think tanks</a>. As well as being published by one, the <span class="caps">IPA</span>'s offering has among the authors associates of think tanks including the Cato Institute (Lindzen, Michaels), the <span class="caps">IPA</span> (Carter), the Global Warming Policy Foundation (Lawson) and the Frontier Center for Public Policy (Laframboise).</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">This is in fact the second time the <span class="caps">IPA</span> has released a publication erroneously titled </span><em style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Climate Change: The Facts</em><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The first incarnation, released in 2010, included contributions from a similar list of climate sceptics. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">That book also took contributions from Lawson, Plimer, Lindzen and Kininmonth, alongside the likes of <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/christopher-monckton">Lord Monckton</a> and Professor Richard Tol.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">As well as gathering cash for its latest climate screed, the <span class="caps">IPA</span> is also readying itself to promote one of the authors on a four-city speaking tour starting at the end of this month.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Flying in from the <span class="caps">US</span> will be Pat Michaels of the Cato Institute, who </span><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2010/08/16/113717/oil-fueled-pat-michaels/" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">once estimated that about 40 per cent of his funding came from the petroleum industry</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The <span class="caps">IPA</span> doesn’t say where its funding comes from, but they seem to have plenty of cash coming in. </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">In its accounts ending June 2012, the Melbourne organisation declared an income of $3.95 million, of which $2.2 million came in straight donations.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Enough for a book or two, you’d think?</span></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/institute-of-public-affairs">Institute of Public Affairs</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1396">pat michaels</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/cato-institute">cato institute</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/3952">richard lindzen</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8831">Donna Laframboise</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/climate-change-denial">climate change denial</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/15852">climate sceptics</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6904">Frontier Center for Public Policy</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4962">James Delingpole</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/15853">mark steyn</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/michael-mann">michael mann</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4670">Nigel Lawson</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6314">GWPF</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4768">global warming policy foundation</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8876">Stewart Franks</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/622">bob carter</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/15854">bill kininmonth</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/ross-mckitrick">ross mckitrick</a></div></div></div>Mon, 14 Apr 2014 21:43:22 +0000Graham Readfearn7991 at http://www.desmogblog.comExclusive: Mont Pelerin Society Revealed As Home To Leading Pushers Of Climate Science Denialhttp://www.desmogblog.com/2014/01/15/exclusive-mont-pelerin-society-revealed-home-leading-pushers-climate-science-denial
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/mont%20pelerin%20web%20image.jpg?itok=3ClJkc5m" width="200" height="117" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><span class="caps">THERE</span>’S a popular talking point coming from climate change denialists that all people who accept the science and the need to act on it are somehow blinded by faith.</p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">In Australia, climate science contrarian columnists can barely touch their keyboards without typing out the words “global warming faith” or explaining how human-caused global warming is some sort of “new religion”.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">This “climate religion” narrative often goes hand-in-hand with another favourite denialist talking point where climate scientists are only doing what they do because there’s a dollar in it.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Presumably the laws of physics, the melting ice sheets, the increasing risk of bushfires, the hottest decades on record and the acidifying oceans are also waiting for their cash.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Maurice Newman, the man hand-picked by Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to be the government’s top business advisor, loves both of these debating points.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Newman has described climate scientists as being a “global warming priesthood” and belonging to a new “religion”. In a second opinion column in two weeks in <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/mother-nature-suggests-the-partys-over-for-ipcc/story-e6frgd0x-1226801761168" target="_blank">The Australian</a>, Newman repeats his cynicism over the <span class="caps">IPCC</span> and climate scientists, describing them as a “</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">cartel” that “will deny all contrary evidence”. Newman even repeats the myth that in the 1970s scientists were certain the world was heading for global cooling, when in fact, as<a href="http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/2008BAMS2370.1" target="_blank"> this study shows</a>, a healthy majority of scientific papers were predicting the opposite. </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Yet Newman has a deep belief system of his own, having long been associated with a form of “classic liberalism” – a particular world view which advocates small government and low regulation of the activities of businesses.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Not only that, but he is a member of a global society of influential business people, academics and think tank associates known as the <a href="https://www.montpelerin.org/montpelerin/home.html" target="_blank">Mont Pelerin Society</a> who share the same broad ideology.</span></p>
<p><strong style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The Mont Pelerin Society</strong></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The Mont Pelerin Society was established in 1947 by free market economist and philosopher Friedrich von Hayek.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Maurice Newman, a Mont Pelerin member since 1976, has long been an admirer of the work of Hayek and fellow free market economist Milton Friedman, a past president of the Mont Pelerin Society.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Newman was responsible for bringing Friedman to Australia in the mid-1970s, at a time when Newman was helping to set up the Centre for Independent Studies – a Sydney-based free market think tank.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Mont Pelerin’s website explains that while all members don’t agree on everything, “they see danger in the expansion of government, not least in state welfare, in the power of trade unions and business monopoly, and in the continuing threat and reality of inflation.”</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The Society, which holds a meeting annually in different parts of the world, also explains how its members see their society “as an effort to interpret in modern terms the fundamental principles of economic society as expressed by those classical economists, political scientists, and philosophers who have inspired many in Europe, America and throughout the Western World.”</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">To become a member, individuals have to be nominated by a current member and then seek endorsement by the membership committee before being endorsed. </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">DeSmogBlog has obtained a full list of the society’s members that includes senior representatives of many of the world’s foremost “free market” think tanks actively pushing back on proposed policy solutions to tackle climate change.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The list, from 2010, includes almost 500 people from 52 countries, with the bulk of members coming from the United States and the United Kingdom. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The 70-page list includes private contact details. DeSmogBlog has decided to publish only extracts with contact details redacted.</span></p>
<p>Among the notable members is Charles Koch (<a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/2010%20US%20MPS%20list%20-%201.jpg">list excerpt here</a>), the <span class="caps">US</span> oil billionaire who has been a Mont Pelerin Society member since 1970.</p>
<!--break-->
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Charles and his brother David have used their charitable foundations to funnel tens of millions of dollars into free market think tanks which fight environmental protection and deny the dangers of human-caused climate change.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">In Australia, Mont Pelerin Society members include John Roskam (<a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/2010%20Aus%20MPS%20list%20-%203.jpg">list excerpt here</a>), executive director of the Institute of Public Affairs; Greg Lindsay (<a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/2010%20Aus%20MPS%20list%20-%202.jpg">list excerpt here</a>) , executive director of the Centre for Independent Studies; and mining magnate Ron Manners, executive director of the pro-mining think tank the Mannkal Economic Education Foundation.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">All three organisations have actively pushed climate science scepticism and denial or heavily understated the risks of continuing to burn record amounts of fossil fuels.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Lindsay is a former president of the Mont Pelerin Society. In his 2008 “Presidential Address,” published in a Mont Pelerin newsletter, Lindsay claimed that climate change research had become an “industry” which lacked integrity.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">His conspiracy theory was that scientists “have a vested interest in supporting the theory, so that the funding drip becomes a torrent.”</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Lindsay also used the popular denial talking point that people who accepted the science of climate change were blinded by belief.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">He said: “As many critics have pointed out, their belief in the theory, in too many instances, borders on the superstitious and mystical. The fact that so many minds are closed to any doubt strongly suggests that we are dealing with a new species of the kind of religious dogma which the Enlightenment developed to counter.”</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The argument put by Lindsay back in 2008 is identical to that put by Tony Abbott’s chief business advisor Maurice Newman in recent columns, the latest <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/planet-oz/2014/jan/07/maurice-newman-climate-change-denial-tony-abbott-roy-spencer" target="_blank">only a few weeks ago</a>.</span></p>
<p><strong style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Mont Pelerin in the United States</strong></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The <span class="caps">US</span> cohort of Mont Pelerin members includes many senior staff associated with “free market” think tanks that have manufactured doubt about the science of human-caused climate change or the need to act quickly.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Alongside Charles Koch, DeSmogBlog’s document shows that Mont Pelerin Society members include senior staff, directors and associates from groups his </span><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Koch_Family_Foundations" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">family foundations have helped to fund</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">These include the Cato Institute, </span><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/heritage-foundation" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Heritage Foundation</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">, the Acton Institute, the </span><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/reason-foundation" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Reason Foundation</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> and the American Enterprise Institute.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Other members include Wall Street Journal editor and columnist Mary O’Grady and John O’Sullivan, a columnist with the conservative National Review.</span></p>
<p><strong style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The <span class="caps">UK</span> and Mont Pelerin</strong></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Members of <span class="caps">UK</span> free market think tanks including The Adam Smith Institute, <span class="caps">CIVITAS</span> and the Institute of Economic Affairs have also gained membership with the Mont Pelerin Society.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Long-standing climate science sceptic </span><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/julian-morris" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Julian Morris</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> is also listed as a member.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Another <span class="caps">UK</span> member is Linda Whetstone, the daughter of Antony Fisher who founded the influential <span class="caps">UK</span> neo-liberal think tank, the Institute of Economic Affairs.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Antony Fisher </span><a href="http://atlasnetwork.org/blog/2010/01/founders-story/" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">established the Atlas Economic Research Foundation</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> – a vast network of about 400 think tanks around the world that share the ideals of limiting the power of government. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Alejandro Chafuen, the current president of Atlas, is also listed as a 2010 Mont Pelerin Society member.</span></p>
<p><strong style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Global network</strong></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The Mont Pelerin Society got its name from the location of the very first meeting in Switzerland, and members continue to have ample chance to network in their annual meetings. </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">In recent years, members have travelled to the Galapagos Islands, Prague (former Czech president Vaclav Klaus is a member), New York, Morocco, Tokyo, Sydney, Buenos Aires and Stockholm.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The opportunity for this powerful and influential group to share ideas is obvious.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">In 2010, when members held a meeting in Australia, Perth-based mining magnate and member Ron Manners extended an invitation to those making the long trip down under.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">A 2010 Mont Pelerin Society newsletter obtained by DeSmogBlog explained how Manners, whose think tank has hosted climate science denier Christopher Monckton, had organised a “fascinating tour” of mining and energy sites including a day tour of the remote Pilbara region described as the “ground zero” of the mining boom.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">It should come as no surprise that the Mont Pelerin Society has more than its fair share of climate science deniers within its ranks.</span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0075637" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Research has shown</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> that belief in free market ideology is a predictor of the rejection of climate change science. This link was also revealed in Merchants of Doubt, a book by science historians Erik Conway and Naomi Oreskes.</span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/03/20/research-reveals-almost-all-climate-science-denial-books-linked-conservative-think-tanks" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">About four out of every five climate denial books ever published</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">, according to one study, have links </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">to conservative and free market think tanks </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">either through the authors or the publishers.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">When it comes to efforts to block meaningful policy to tackle climate change, it seems free market groups and societies extolling their version of “freedom” are in fact a “ground zero” for climate science denial. </span></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/14990">mont pelerin society</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7524">Maurice Newman</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/939">climate change</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/climate-change-denial">climate change denial</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4902">Charles Koch</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/cato-institute">cato institute</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/heritage-foundation">heritage foundation</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8866">Acton Institute</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2751">institute of economic affairs</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/14991">civitas</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2732">julian morris</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/14992">greg lindsay</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4368">John Roskam</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/institute-of-public-affairs">Institute of Public Affairs</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/ipa">IPA</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6878">Tony Abbott</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/australia">Australia</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/14993">cis</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/14994">centre for independent studies</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/14995">atlas</a></div></div></div>Wed, 15 Jan 2014 06:27:40 +0000Graham Readfearn7753 at http://www.desmogblog.comThe Campaigns That Tried To Break The Climate Science Consensushttp://www.desmogblog.com/2013/06/06/campaigns-tried-break-climate-science-consensus
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/littlechicken.jpg?itok=ybKOMH36" width="200" height="218" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>So just in case anyone wasn’t sure, a major study of almost 12,000 scientific papers on global warming between 1991 and 2011 finds less than one per cent disagree that humans are the main cause.</p>
<p>Published in the journal <a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/2/024024/article" target="_blank">Environmental Research Letters</a>, the study led by John Cook, the Australia-based founder of Skeptical Science, confirms the debate about the causes of global warming had all but vanished in the scientific literature by the early 1990s. <span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Almost all the research says it’s mostly caused by humans. </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">For any followers of climate science in journals (the place where it actually matters) the finding wasn’t really news at all. </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Yet survey after survey finds the public still thinks scientists are arguing over the causes of global warming and the media continues to attempt to resuscitate </span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/planet-oz/2013/may/17/zombie-climate-sceptic-theories-newspapers-tv" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">long-dead ideas</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">. </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Does it matter that people have a clear understanding of the main thrust of the science? A 2012 study in the journal </span><a href="http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v3/n4/full/nclimate1720.html" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Nature Climate Change</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> found that people were more likely to accept human-caused global warming if they were informed that scientists were in broad agreement (which we know they are). </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">For decades, fossil fuel-funded groups, free market think tanks (some of which also qualify as fossil fuel funded groups) and the fossil fuel industry itself have known the importance of the public’s understanding of the state of climate science. A public that understands the state of the science is more likely to want something done about climate change. Doing something, means using a lot less fossil fuel. </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">But who wanted to tell the public that a consensus didn’t exist? Here are just some of the campaigns run over the years showing how breaking the consensus in the eyes of the public was a key strategy.</span></p>
<!--break-->
<h3>
<strong style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Heartland Institute's climate denial conferences</strong><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></h3>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The Heartland Institute is a Chicago-based free market think tank launched in 1994, which has accepted millions of dollars from conservative groups and fossil fuel interests. </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">In 2008, Heartland decided to host a conference for climate sceptics in New York – it would be the first of eight conferences for skeptics and deniers (six of them were held in the <span class="caps">US</span>, one in Germany and one in Australia). The gatherings have been sponsored by dozens of other free market think tanks, including Australia’s Institute of Public Affairs. </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Analysis by </span><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/heartland-institute" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;" target="_blank">DeSmogBlog</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> shows how the think tanks has accepted millions of dollars from vested interests, including more than $500,000 from Exxon. </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Right from the start, the main purpose of the conferences was to give the impression of a debate among climate scientists. Before the first conference, Heartland Institute fellow and Forbes columnist James Taylor </span><a href="http://www.realclimate.org/docs/Heartland.pdf" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;" target="_blank">wrote to prospective speakers</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> with an offer of $1000 and travel expenses for anyone willing to front up. The main purpose of the conference was not to further scientific knowledge, as Taylor explained:</span></p>
<blockquote>
<p><em style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The purpose of the conference is to generate international media attention to the fact that many scientists believe forecasts of rapid warming and catastrophic events are not supported by sound science, and that expensive campaigns to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are not necessary or cost-effective.</em><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">To be even clearer, the objective was to try and create the impression of a debate among scientists. </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">John Cook has provided DeSmogBlog with data from his study showing the state of the peer-reviewed science for the years when the campaigns were being plotted. This analysis shows that in fact, in 2008 when Heartland began its conferences, hardly any scientists in the peer-reviewed literature were rejecting the evidence that humans were causing global warming. There were 353 scientific papers that year saying explicitly that humans were causing global warming. Only three argued there was a different cause. </span></p>
<h3>
<strong style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The Oregon Petition Project</strong><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></h3>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">In 1998, the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine published a petition containing the names of 17,000 “scientists” which would later build to more than 31,000. The <span class="caps">OISM</span> </span><a href="http://www.petitionproject.org/index.php" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">petition project</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> declared there was “no convincing scientific evidence” that greenhouse gas emissions would cause catastrophic climate change. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Regulations to cut emissions would harm the environment, the petition said. </span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.skepticalscience.com/news.php?n=158" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;" target="_blank">Skeptical Science</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> analysed the qualifications of the signatories, and found 18,000 had qualified in fields unrelated to climate science, such as engineering, computer science and mathematics. Of the 13,245 scientists left (which represented only 0.1 per cent of science graduates) Skeptical Science found only a tiny fraction had qualified in a science remotely relevant to climate change. </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Along with the petition was a letter written by Dr Frederick Seitz, a celebrated physicist and president of the <span class="caps">US</span> National Academy of Sciences from 1962 to 1969. Seitz claimed “research data on climate change do not show that human use of hydrocarbons is harmful” and that in fact extra <span class="caps">CO</span>2 would be environmentally helpful. Seitz had worked as a consultant for cigarette giant <span class="caps">RJ</span> Reynolds – earning $540,000 over the years – and helped hand out more than $45 million of the cigarette maker’s money for medical “research”. </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Seitz was a co-founder of the George C. Marshall Institute (<span class="caps">GMI</span>), a conservative think tank that had been pushing climate science denial since the late 80s with the support of wealthy conservative foundations. In 1998 - the same year Seitz signed the petition letter - <span class="caps">GMI</span> accepted its first grant from Exxon and would go on to bank </span><a href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/orgfactsheet.php?id=36" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;" target="_blank">$840,000 from the oil giant</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">. </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Nine years before Seitz gave his name to the petition, an </span><a href="http://tobaccodocuments.org/pm/2023266534.html" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;" target="_blank">internal tobacco industry memo</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> discussing a potential meeting with Seitz had said he was “quite elderly and not sufficiently rational to offer advice”. </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">J</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">ohn Cook’s study finds that in 1998 there were just three peer reviewed science papers rejecting the evidence that humans were the main cause of global warming. Some 96 said humans were the cause. </span></p>
<h3>
<strong style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The Frank Luntz memo</strong><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></h3>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">In 2001, <span class="caps">US</span> pollster, communications guru and political strategist Frank Luntz wrote </span><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/files/LuntzResearch_environment.pdf" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;" target="_blank">a report</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> which would shape the Republican message on climate change. Luntz told </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WiTVL9iT1w" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="caps">CBC</span>’s Fifth Estate</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> program his research was originally “written for the energy community, written for business community and written for basically general consumption among those who at that time challenged the science of global warming”. </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The George Bush-led Republican administration adopted Luntz’s advice in 2001. In the report, compiled in 2000, Luntz advised that the phrase “global warming” should be replaced with the “less frightening” term “climate change”. But Luntz also made clear his view of the importance of the scientific consensus in the minds of voters. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">He wrote: </span></p>
<blockquote>
<p><em style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Voters believe that there is no consensus about global warming within the scientific community. Should the public come to believe that the scientific issues are settled, their views about global warming will change accordingly. Therefore, you need to continue to make the lack of scientific certainty a primary issue in the debate.</em><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">In 2006 during a </span><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/panorama/5312208.stm" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;" target="_blank"><span class="caps">BBC</span> documentary</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">, Luntz defended his advice in the document saying it reflected the state of the science at the time. He said he now accepted that humans were changing the climate but added, “the science [in 2000] was not definitive. There were plenty of people at that point who were challenging it.” </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">So what was the peer-reviewed science looking like back in the year 2001 when George Bush took Luntz’s spin to the public? John Cook’s study shows there were 121 science papers that year which blamed humans for global warming. Only two rejected that humans were the main cause. </span></p>
<h3>
<strong style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">American Petroleum Institute</strong><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></h3>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span></span><em style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Victory will be achieved when… average citizens ‘understand’ (recognize) uncertainties in climate science; recognition of uncertainties becomes part of the ‘conventional wisdom’.”</em><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">This was one conclusion of the “Global Climate Science Communications Plan” – a multi-million dollar proposal in 1998 to make climate change a “non-issue” by reaching out to media and the public. The plan, </span><a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/publications/reports/dealing-in-doubt/" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;" target="_blank">uncovered and documented by Greenpeace</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">, was developed by several conservative think tank associates, climate science denial groups and staff from Exxon, major <span class="caps">US</span> coal corporation The Southern Company, Chevron and the American Petroleum Institute. </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The plan cited a survey of “1,100 informed Americans” which had found that Americans “currently perceive climate change to be a great threat”. But the survey also revealed that persuading the public that there was no consensus on the science of climate change would be key to eroding concern. </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The survey found that telling the public that scientists were in disagreement about the causes of climate change helped to erode their concern. When primed with this message, more than half said they were more likely to oppose the <span class="caps">UN</span> Kyoto treaty to cut emissions.</span><strong style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> </strong><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<h3>
<strong style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="caps">ICE</span></strong><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></h3>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>Reposition global warming as theory (not fact),” was the main proposition of a campaign developed in 1991 by a coalition of <span class="caps">US</span> coal companies. Western Fuels Association and The Southern Company joined utilities association Edison Electric Institute to develop the campaign under a new group – the Information Council on the Environment. </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Newspaper and radio advertisements were developed and a <a href="http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/?a=view&amp;d=2950" target="_blank">detailed <span class="caps">PR</span> campaign devised</a>. Contrarian scientists Dr Robert Balling, Dr Pat Michaels and Dr Sherwood Idso would act as scientific advisors, make public appearances and write newspaper columns, </span><a href="http://www.heatisonline.org/contentserver/objecthandlers/index.cfm?ID=4461&amp;Method=Full&amp;PageCall=&amp;Title=The%20Coal%20Industry's%20%22ICE%22%20Campaign%20(1999)" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;" target="_blank">the plan outlined</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">. </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">One advert chimed “Who told you the earth was warming… Chicken Little?” and claimed that “evidence that the earth is warming is weak”. In any case, proof that carbon dioxide was the primary cause was “non existent”, the advert claimed. The intention was to convince the public that there was a raging debate among climate scientists about the causes of climate change.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">John Cook’s study found that in 1991, this just wasn’t the case. There were 65 peer-reviewed studies blaming global warming on human activity in 1991. Only four blamed something else. </span></p>
<h3>
<strong style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Dirty lessons</strong><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></h3>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The lesson from these campaigns is pretty clear. If you give the public the impression that fossil fuel burning might not be the cause of climate change, then the vested interests think this waters down their concern and protects the viability of their product. </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">For free market fundamentalists and a significant chunk of conservative politics, the same rule applies. Hacking away at the public’s understanding of the causes of climate change reduces the pressure on governments to regulate greenhouse gases and keeps the “free market” ideologues happy. </span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">For the rest of us, cutting the risks of dangerous climate change became collateral damage.</span></p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">For more on John Cook's study, visit <a href="http://theconsensusproject.com/" target="_blank">The Consensus Project</a>.</span></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2540">desmogblog</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12795">climate science denial</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12662">consensus project</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/640">exxon</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12796">the southern company</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/western-fuels-association">western fuels association</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/916">kyoto</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1307">frank luntz</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12797">luntz memo</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/chevron">chevron</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/fred-seitz">fred seitz</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/rj-reynolds">rj reynolds</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6914">George Marshall Institute</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/patrick-michaels">patrick michaels</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/821">Heartland Institute</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12798">denial conferences</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7823">john cook</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12637">Environmental Research Letters</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/institute-of-public-affairs">Institute of Public Affairs</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4499">API</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/643">American Petroleum Institute</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1206">oregon petition</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4986">petition project</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4511">ice</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4916">Information Council on the Environment (ICE)</a></div></div></div>Thu, 06 Jun 2013 12:00:00 +0000Graham Readfearn7227 at http://www.desmogblog.comClimate Denial Think Tank's Plans To Abolish Climate Change Departments in Australiahttp://www.desmogblog.com/2013/03/21/climate-denial-think-tank-s-plans-abolish-climate-change-departments-australia
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/ipa.jpg?itok=ONJFySdX" width="164" height="164" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>A <span class="caps">LEADING</span> Australian free-market think tank with close ties to the country's conservative Liberal Party has revealed its plan for climate change - abolish it.</p>
<p>Aside from the current Labor-led government's <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-22/cassidy-a-farcical-performance-under-the-canberra-big-top/4587342" target="_blank">mud-wrestling over its leadership</a>, all opinion polls point to a landslide victory for the Tony Abbott-led Liberal Party at the next election, which has been set for September.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.ipa.org.au/" target="_blank">Institute of Public Affairs</a>, a leading promoter of climate science denial and misrepresentation, has revealed its recommendations for the next government in a document outlining budget cuts. The plan was written by Alan Moran, director of the think tank's deregulation unit.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://catallaxyfiles.com/files/2013/03/Commonwealth-reform-negative-value-adding-components.pdf" target="_blank">document</a> made the pages of <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/aid-rights-body-public-sector-to-be-slashed/story-fn59niix-1226598578861" target="_blank">The Australian</a> newspaper but the report did not mention the document's detailed plans to obliterate all climate change functions in the country's public sector. In one section the document outlines the think tank's recommendations for public sector departments. In delaing with the future of the “Climate Change and Energy Efficiency” department, Moran writes simply: “Abolish”.</p>
<p>Pretty much every other federal government function to administer climate change policy, research global warming, ensure sustainable development or support renewable energy gets chopped under Moran's plan. Many publicly-funded research programs and agencies are either chopped entirely or cut to the bone.</p>
<!--break-->
<p>As well as abolishing the country's climate change department, the <span class="caps">IPA</span> plan would also scrap the <a href="http://www.arena.gov.au/about/index.html" target="_blank">Australian Renewable Energy Agency</a> and cut research into sustainable development and climate change carried out in the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (the <span class="caps">IPA</span> plan also suggested a departmental branch responsible for plain packaging legislation should also be abolished, not surprising given that <a href="http://www.crikey.com.au/2012/05/31/the-ipa-research-funded-by-big-tobacco/" target="_blank">British American Tobacco has been a recent funder</a> of the <span class="caps">IPA</span>).</p>
<p>The Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities would have 2149 staff cuts and all “climate change functions” in the Bureau of Meteorology would be abolished, along with 15 staff. The <span class="caps">CSIRO</span> - Australia's main science and research agency responsible for some world leading science on climate change - would be halved in size with 2780 people made redundant.</p>
<p>Moran's document is of course simply a wish list, but it comes from a think tank with close ties to the Liberal Party which, if you believe the polls, is heading for an easy win at the next election. John Roskam, the <span class="caps">IPA</span>'s executive director, has been reported to have missed out on <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Party-faces-choice-new-blood-or-not/2005/06/17/1118869094822.html" target="_blank">Liberal Party pre-selections for seats more than once</a>, most notably in the seat of Higgins <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/wannabes-chances-petered-out/story-e6frg6n6-1225737017734" target="_blank">in 2009 where he had been considered a frontrunner</a>. </p>
<p>He is a former boss of the Menzies Research Centre - the Liberal Party's official think tank. In a profile on Roskam for <a href="http://www.thepowerindex.com.au/thinkers-agenda-setters/john-roskam" target="_blank">The Power Index</a>, <span class="caps">IPA</span> adjunct fellow Tom Switzer said Roskam had driven the think tank's agenda on climate change - that is, an agenda to promote climate change denial and oppose policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions.</p>
<p>The <span class="caps">IPA</span>, which does not reveal its funders, has been a sponsor of climate science denial conferences hosted in the <span class="caps">US</span> by free market think tank the Heartland Institute. Since the early 1990s the <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/donna-laframboise-flown-australia-climate-science-denying-think-tank" target="_blank">think tank has been hosting and promoting</a> the views of climate science deniers such as Fred Singer, Vaclav Klaus, Pat Michaels and others.</p>
<p>On the <span class="caps">IPA</span> board is Liberal Party powerbroker Michael Kroger, who in 2009 was <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politics/michael-kroger-calls-time-on-senior-liberal-shadows/story-e6frgczf-1225813297412" target="_blank">reported as being behind a push</a> to clear the deadwood from the party and instal Roskam and another <span class="caps">IPA</span> director, Tim Wilson, as fresh-faced new candidates. In recent weeks, a leaked Liberal Party discussion paper revealed it was ruminating over <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/abbott-hoses-down-tropical-tax-zone-plan-20130207-2dzkf.html" target="_blank">the merits of creating a new economic zone for the north of Australia</a>.</p>
<p>The idea is being pushed by the <span class="caps">IPA</span> in partnership with another think tank, <a href="http://www.andev-project.org/" target="_blank">Australians for Northern Development and Economic Vision</a>, founded by coal and iron ore mining magnate Gina Rinehart. <a href="http://www.andev-project.org/" target="_blank"><span class="caps">ANDEV</span></a> and the <a href="http://www.andev-project.org/resources/coalitions-northern-vision-welcomed/" target="_blank"><span class="caps">IPA</span> was delighted</a> at the Liberal Party taking up its plan.</p>
<p>Jim Chalmers, who heads the Labor Party's think tank The Chifley Research Centre, wrote in <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4579558.html" target="_blank">The Drum</a> that Moran's document should be seen as a “chilling preview” of what was to come under a future Liberal government. Liberal leader Tony Abbott has already pledged to repeal the nation's price on greenhouse gas emissions. </p>
<p>But it's ridiculous to think that any government - even a Liberal one - would shut down all of its climate change functions entirely, isn't it? Well no, unfortunately it isn't. </p>
<p>As documented by <a href="http://www.theglobalmail.org/feature/shock-and-ore/513/" target="_blank">The Global Mail</a>, after the Liberal National Party came to power in Queensland a year ago, Premier Campbell Newman's government proceeded to napalm a host of environmental programs. Support was pulled for a major solar power project, 1400 jobs with an environment focus were axed, key legislation protecting wild rivers was rolled back while mining and resources was installed as on of the “four pillars” of his leadership. When it came to protecting the state's iconic Great Barrier Reef, Newman reminded voters that Queensland was “<a href="http://www.news.com.au/national-news/unesco-slams-great-barrier-reef-management-youve-got-eight-months-to-fix-it/story-e6frfkw0-1226381188474" target="_blank">in the coal business</a>” and that environmental protection would not get in the way of economic growth driven by the resources industry.</p>
<p>And the state's <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/campbell-newman-government-gives-staff-of-defunct-office-of-climate-change-6500-or-more-to-leave/story-e6freoof-1226381960854" target="_blank">Office of Climate Change? Abolished</a>. So wide reaching have been the cuts in Queensland, they might as well have been written by the <span class="caps">IPA</span>. </p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/ipa">IPA</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/institute-of-public-affairs">Institute of Public Affairs</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/alan-moran">Alan Moran</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6878">Tony Abbott</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4366">Liberal Party</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/australia">Australia</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/939">climate change</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/3062">climate denial</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7101">queensland</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4368">John Roskam</a></div></div></div>Fri, 22 Mar 2013 06:16:58 +0000Graham Readfearn6985 at http://www.desmogblog.comHow To Spot A Fake Grassroots Movementhttp://www.desmogblog.com/2013/02/18/how-spot-fake-grassroots-movement
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/morans.jpg?itok=ZpotFbR3" width="200" height="195" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><span class="caps">PERHAPS</span> somebody should write a pocket guide book with the title: “How to spot you've been suckered by a fake grassroots movement”.</p>
<p>Once it's written, these guide books could be distributed free of charge to crowds at anti-carbon tax rallies, <span class="caps">US</span> Tea Party marches and pretty much any gathering of a “movement” telling you that you're freedom is being put at risk by big governments, nanny states, new world orders or communists disguised as climate scientists or public health professionals.</p>
<p>But why the sudden need for the guide?</p>
<p>There's now emerging evidence that if these really are “grassroots” movements, then many of the seeds and the fertilisers are being supplied by major corporations and “libertarian” billionaires. It turns out that the <span class="caps">US</span> Tea Party movement and its calls for “freedom” from government intervention wasn't some organic uprising of community concern after all.</p>
<p>A new academic study documents how the Tea Party was envisioned and planned by tobacco company executives in concert with Citizens for a Sound Economy, a group established by oil billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch.</p>
<p>As reported on <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/02/11/study-confirms-tea-party-was-created-big-tobacco-and-billionaires" target="_blank">DeSmogBlog</a>, the study “<a href="http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2013/02/07/tobaccocontrol-2012-050815.abstract" target="_blank">‘To quarterback behind the scenes, third-party efforts’: the tobacco industry and the Tea Party</a>” shows how the industry wanted to hide their profit motive and fear of the government regulating their deadly products behind a “movement to change the way that people think”, as R.J Reynolds Tobacco's head of national field operations Tim Hyde described it.</p>
<!--break-->
<p>Two groups were spawned from Citizens for a Sound Economy. As DeSmogBlog's Brendan DeMelle reports: “Freedomworks and Americans for Prosperity are both multi-issue organizations that have expanded their battles to include other policies they see as threats to the free market principles they claim to defend, namely fighting health care reform and regulations on global warming pollution.”</p>
<p>The judicious 2010 book “<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/41292.html" target="_blank">Merchants of Doubt</a>”, by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway, also documented how a small group of scientists and “free market” ideologues had spread doubt on research linking tobacco to cancer and how some of those scientists were now operating in the climate science denial industry.</p>
<p>Also in recent weeks, more detail has emerged of the money trail linking groups across the <span class="caps">US</span> who run projects to block government regulation of greenhouse gas pollution or misrepresent (or outright deny) the many decades of science linking climate change to human activity.</p>
<p>In February last year, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/how-heartland-style-climate-sceptic-campaigns-play-hide-deniers-using-secretive-fund" target="_blank">DeSmogBlog</a> wrote of a secretive Virginia-based trust fund which was acting as a middleman for rich conservatives to hide their funding of projects blocking action on climate change and denying the science. The Donors Capital Fund and its partner organisation <a href="http://donorstrust.org/" target="_blank">Donors Trust</a> were funnelling millions of dollars into climate denial projects across the <span class="caps">US</span>.</p>
<p>Since then, <span class="caps">PBS</span> Frontline documentary “<a href="http://video.pbs.org/video/2295533310">Climate of Doubt</a>” has also covered the role which Donors Trust and <span class="caps">DCF</span> have played in funding climate science denial projects, which include documentary films, “education” materials, report writing campaigns and lobbying. The <span class="caps">UK</span>'s <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/exclusive-billionaires-secretly-fund-attacks-on-climate-science-8466312.html" target="_blank">The Independent</a> newspaper recently reported how the “Knowledge and Progress Fund”, a group established by Charles Koch, had given at least $4.5 million to Donors Trust since 2007.</p>
<p>Now <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/feb/14/funding-climate-change-denial-thinktanks-network" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reveals the true extent of Donors Trust and <span class="caps">DCF</span>'s funding of the climate denial movement which, the newspaper reports, has bankrolled a vast network of think-tanks with climate denial projects. The Competitive Enterprise Institute, Americans for Prosperity, American Enterprise Foundation, the Cato Institute and the Heartland Institute are just some of the organisations which have each received millions of dollars from <span class="caps">DCF</span> or Donors Trust since 2002. <a href="http://greenpeaceblogs.org/2013/02/15/revealed-donors-trust-is-the-secret-atm-machine-for-climate-deniers/" target="_blank">Greenpeace</a> has analysed the tax forms of Donors Trust and <span class="caps">DCF</span> and finds it has funnelled $146 million into the climate science denial industry between 2002 and 2011.</p>
<p>One major beneficiary has been the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (<span class="caps">CFACT</span>) which has received more than $4 million from <span class="caps">DCF</span> or Donors Trust since 2002. The latest <a href="http://dynamodata.fdncenter.org//990_pdf_archive/522/522166327/522166327_201112_990.pdf" target="_blank">990 tax forms show that Donors Trust</a> gave $1.19 million to <span class="caps">CFACT</span> in 2011, mostly for “general operations” or the group's “environmental education fund”. In return, <span class="caps">CFACT</span> tax records show it returned $300,000 to Donors Trust in 2011.</p>
<p><span class="caps">CFACT</span>'s highest profile operators are <a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2012/12/27/climate-change-misinformer-of-the-year-marc-mor/191878" target="_blank">Marc Morano</a>, the organisation's director of communications who maintains the Climate Depot denial blog, and climate science denial poster boy Lord Christopher Monckton.</p>
<p>Lord Monckton has been part of <span class="caps">CFACT</span> delegations, often with Morano by his side, at United Nations climate and environment conferences including Rio, Doha, Cancun, Durban, Copenhagen and Bonn. Lord Monckton has also been a favourite of local Tea Party groups in the <span class="caps">US</span> who have sponsored lectures across America where Lord Monckton has claimed global warming is a socialist plot to take over the world and that President Obama's Hawaiin birth certificate was probably faked.</p>
<p>Currently on one of his regular speaking tours across Australia, Lord Monckton has most recently <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/02/13/climate-science-denier-lord-monckton-joins-creationist-pastor-launch-extremist-political-party" target="_blank">helped to launch an extremist Australian political party</a> fronted by an anti-Islamic, creationist pastor.</p>
<p>The long arm of the Koch's fake grassroots movement also reached Australia in the form of Tim Andrews who took part in the Koch Associate Program, describing it thus - “an intense year-long training program by the Charles Koch Institute to train a select group of activists to become more efficient agents for change”.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.spectator.co.uk/australia/7243323/meet-the-man-behind-the-anticarbon-tax-lobby/" target="_blank">The Spectator</a> magazine identified Andrews as the “mastermind” behind the anti-science, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/australia-gets-price-carbon-despite-toxic-anti-science-campaign" target="_blank">anti-carbon tax rallies held across Australia</a> in what was a failed attempt to stop legislation to put a price on greenhouse gas emissions. Mr Andrews has now founded the Australian Taxpayer's Alliance with Cato Institute climate sceptic Pat Michaels as an advisor.</p>
<p>Then there is the American Legislative Exchange Council - an organisation which has received heavy funding from Koch brothers groups over the years. The Koch company also has a seat on the <span class="caps">ALEC</span> board alongside other corporates such as coal giant Peabody and oil company Exxon. A core of <span class="caps">ALEC</span>'s operation is to draft model bills which legislators can drop into statehouses. <span class="caps">ALEC</span>'s 2013 effort includes a bill to repeal any state laws which might have mandated that electricity supplies contain a fixed percentage from renewable energies. Their latest success is a bill <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/01/31/three-states-pushing-alec-bill-climate-change-denial-schools" target="_blank">mandating the teaching of climate science in school classrooms</a>, which has gained support in three states.</p>
<p>Documents from <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/15/idUS297741396920120315" target="_blank">climate science denial group the Heartland Institute</a> ($14 million from Donors Trust and <span class="caps">DCF</span>) showed it too was targeting school children. A plan was to pay a former coal power consultant to write a new school curriculum to focus on teaching children that human caused climate change was a scientific “controversy”. The Heartland documents also showed how Australian climate sceptic Professor Bob Carter, science advisor to Melbourne-based “free market” think tank the Institute of Public Affairs, would be <a href="http://www.readfearn.com/2012/02/bob-carter-responds-to-heartland-leak/" target="_blank">paid $1667 a month by Heartland</a> to edit a climate change report.</p>
<p>So how to spot these fake “grassroots” movements?</p>
<p>One tip to go into our imaginary “pocket guide” might be to red flag any repeated use of the word “freedom” and the surely positive advocation of “free markets” or a “free society”. These value-laden terms are often co-opted by industry-funded think-tanks fighting regulation in their industry.</p>
<p>Before lining up with their “freedom” placards, would-be marchers might want to first ask themselves who are the real beneficiaries when governments are stripped of their power to regulate the activities of major corporations.</p>
<p>Is this version of “freedom” really for the benefit of the people, or is it more about freedom for major corporations to indiscriminately pollute, freedom to market cancer sticks, freedom to buy politicians, freedom to secretly lobby, freedom to write your own laws, freedom to use tax havens, freedom to teach climate science denial to kids, freedom from taxes, freedom for the rich to get richer and freedom to put our health and security at risk from climate change?</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4953">tea party</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4902">Charles Koch</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1251">tobacco</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12090">reynolds</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/591">christopher monckton</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8474">lord Monckton</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12061">rise up australia</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8475">Donors Trust</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8476">Donors Capital Fund</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8525">DCF</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/939">climate change</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5081">Merchants of Doubt</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/naomi-oreskes">naomi oreskes</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5080">Erik Conway</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4903">David Koch</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1800">koch industries</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12091">kochs</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/3062">climate denial</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/821">Heartland Institute</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2427">heartland</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6853">ALEC</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/ipa">IPA</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/institute-of-public-affairs">Institute of Public Affairs</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/622">bob carter</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1196">marc morano</a></div></div></div>Mon, 18 Feb 2013 06:15:16 +0000Graham Readfearn6891 at http://www.desmogblog.comJames Delingpole Raising Cash for Australian Climate Sceptic Think Tankhttp://www.desmogblog.com/2012/09/11/james-delingpole-turns-fundraiser-australian-climate-sceptic-think-tank
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/delingpole.jpg?itok=qjefGQVM" width="200" height="248" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><span class="caps">JAMES</span> Delingpole is a <span class="caps">UK</span> columnist waging a long personal jihad against wind farms, environmentalists and climate science.</p>
<p>A resident blogger and columnist at The Daily Telegraph, Delingpole is probably best known for being among the first mainstream columnists to declare, wrongly as it turned out, that emails illegally hacked from an influential climate research unit showed scientists were trying to con the public.</p>
<p>So he is the perfect person to be appealing for people to donate their cash to the Melbourne-based <a href="http://www.ipa.org.au/" target="_blank">Institute of Public Affairs</a>, a free market think tank which has been working for about 20 years on a campaign to mislead the public about climate science and the impact of carbon pricing.</p>
<p>In the <a href="http://carbontax.ipa.org.au/" target="_blank">appeal</a>, Delingpole lauds the <span class="caps">IPA</span>'s campaign against climate science and action on climate change. Readers of the appeal might be forgiven for thinking the <span class="caps">IPA</span> is struggling for cash. Says Delingpole: “Their budget is always stretched. If you don’t give them money they’ll go broke.”</p>
<p>Yet the <span class="caps">IPA</span>'s most recent financial returns to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission suggest that rather than scrambling around for spare change, the think-tank is in fact in rude financial health.</p>
<!--break-->
<p>For the year ending June 2011, the <span class="caps">ASIC</span> documents show the <span class="caps">IPA</span> declared a before-tax profit of $217,000 with an income of $2.42 million. In 2010, the <span class="caps">IPA</span>'s income was $1.72 million, with before-tax profit of $203,000.</p>
<p>The <span class="caps">IPA</span>'s executive director John Roskam refuses to declare where the <span class="caps">IPA</span>'s money comes from. In a story I wrote for the <a href="http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/environment/bid-to-out-the-money-behind-the-voice-against-climate-change-20120126-1qjfp.html#ixzz26DBUJVAm" target="_blank">Brisbane Times</a> about think-tank funding, Roskam told me that “the reason we don't reveal our donors is because unfortunately our donors - and people who were believed to be our donors - have been intimidated because of their supposed support for us”.</p>
<p>A similar excuse is given by the <span class="caps">UK</span>'s <a href="http://www.thegwpf.org/" target="_blank">Global Warming Policy Foundation</a>, a climate skeptic group founded by its chairman Lord Lawson, a former chancellor in the Thatcher government.</p>
<p>Professor Bob Carter, the <span class="caps">IPA</span>'s science policy advisor, is also an advisor to the <span class="caps">GWPF</span> (as well as at least seven other climate sceptic groups), alongside fellow Australian “sceptic” Professor Ian Plimer, who has also made <a href="http://www.menzieshouse.com.au/2011/11/a-personal-appeal-from-ian-plimer.html" target="_blank">personal appeals for people to hand over cash to the <span class="caps">IPA</span></a>.</p>
<p>As I revealed in a story for <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/mar/27/tory-donor-climate-sceptic-thinktank" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> in March, the only known funder of the <span class="caps">GWPF</span> is Michael Hintze, a <span class="caps">UK</span>-based Australian-born hedge fund manager, donor to the <span class="caps">UK</span> Tory Party, and a man with a personal fortune of $1.4billion, <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/michael-hintze/" target="_blank">according to Forbes</a>.</p>
<p>The <span class="caps">IPA</span> also has close ties to the billionaire set in the form of Gina Rinehart, the coal and iron ore mining magnate and world's richest woman. In an address to “<span class="caps">IPA</span> members and friends”, Rinehart recently declared her concern that Australia was becoming too expensive, given that “<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-05/rinehart-says-aussie-workers-overpaid-unproductive/4243866" target="_blank">Africans want to work, and its workers are willing to work for less than $2 per da</a>y”. The comments prompted a Ugandan television personality to declare Rinehart was “<a href="http://www.news.com.au/national/uganda-tv-star-blasts-gina-rineharts-2-comments/story-fndo4bst-1226468099594" target="_blank">removed from reality</a>”. </p>
<p>The <span class="caps">IPA</span> is currently working in partnership with Rinehart's lobby group <a href="http://www.andev-project.org/" target="_blank">Australians for Northern Development <span class="amp">&amp;</span> Economic Vision</a>, which wants a separate low-tax economic zone for the north of Australia to make it cheaper to run major mining projects. Roskam writes a regular “<a href="http://www.andev-project.org/categories/ifann-emails/" target="_blank">Ideas for a New North</a>” bulletin on the <a href="http://www.andev-project.org/" target="_blank"><span class="caps">ANDEV</span> website</a>.</p>
<p>James Delingpole is also a Rinehart fan. When on Twitter recently someone mischievously asked Delingpole if he was being paid by Gina Rinehart, <a href="http://twitter.com/JamesDelingpole/status/245490961633931264" target="_blank">Delingpole responded</a>: “I totally <span class="caps">LOVE</span> Gina. She is a heroine of our age. Bludging scuzzballs like you are not worthy of her!”</p>
<p>The <span class="caps">IPA</span> paid for Delingpole to <a href="http://www.ipa.org.au/events/information/year/2012/event/james-delingpole" target="_blank">tour Australia in April and May</a> to promote his book “<a href="http://www.connorcourt.com/catalog1/index.php?main_page=product_info&amp;products_id=197&amp;zenid=29175e35660496d0a9392b3dc8a43d09" target="_blank">Killing The Earth To Save It</a>”, published by Connor Court, which has John Roskam on its editorial board.</p>
<p>Now back in wind swept England, Delingpole has announced he will run as an independent anti-wind farm candidate in a November by-election for the seat of Corby, which the <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/politics/2012/09/james-delingpole-running-anti-wind-farm-candidate-constituency-no-wind-farms " target="_blank">New Statesman</a> pointed out doesn't actually have any wind turbines.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-2199284/Wind-farms-Are-wind-farms-saving-killing-A-provocative-investigation-claims-thousands-people-falling-sick-live-near-them.html" target="_blank">Daily Mai</a>l, one of the <span class="caps">UK</span>'s best selling conservative newspapers, saw fit to run a hopelessly one-sided story written by Delingpole on the suggested evils of wind farms a few days after he had announced his decision to run.</p>
<p>In the story, Delingpole described a visit to Waterloo, near Adelaide, which he said resembled a scene from a “horror movie” with the turbines cast in the role as evil baddie. Delingpole is convinced that turbines make people ill, despite there being <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2012/08/21/anti-turbine-activist-given-role-observer-australian-wind-power-health-review" target="_blank">no credible evidence</a>. Delingpole didn't declare in the story that he had been in Australia on the dime of the <span class="caps">IPA</span> or that he was currently running as an anti-wind farm candidate in a by-election.</p>
<p>Australian Federal <span class="caps">MP</span> Craig Kelly, the Liberal member for the New South Wales seat of Hughes, was nevertheless impressed by Delingpole's article, given that he cut and pasted chunks of it onto his <a href="http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=443256765727288&amp;set=a.208206749232292.84759.100001289067282&amp;type=1" target="_blank">Facebook page</a> under the heading “<span class="caps">MORE</span> <span class="caps">ON</span> <span class="caps">THE</span> <span class="caps">MULTI</span>-<span class="caps">BILLION</span> <span class="caps">DOLLAR</span> <span class="caps">WIND</span> <span class="caps">FARM</span> <span class="caps">SCANDAL</span>”.</p>
<p>Kelly also declared on his Facebook page that wind energy was “useless” and “Liked” a comment declaring coal to be the “safest and cheapest” form of energy, and how increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere “accelerates crop growth and improves crop yields, as does warming”.</p>
<p>Perhaps some advice to Mr Kelly. Best not to repeat that “<span class="caps">CO</span>2 is plant food” myth to <a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/us-drought-food-security-8aug12/1475641.html" target="_blank">drought-stricken farmers in the <span class="caps">US</span></a>. Don't mention either, the <a href="http://solar.gwu.edu/index_files/Resources_files/epstein_full%20cost%20of%20coal.pdf" target="_blank">Harvard-led</a> study showing how that “cheap” coal was costing the <span class="caps">US</span> economy half a trillion dollars a year.</p>
<p>Also not advisable, it seems, is to politely decline Delingpole's request for cash for the <span class="caps">IPA</span>, unless you don't mind a return-serve of foul abuse. The University of Sydney's Professor Christopher Wright said “no thanks” to Delingpole. Here's how the <span class="caps">IPA</span> fundraiser responded.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.readfearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/delingpole_twitter.jpg"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1148" height="624" src="http://www.readfearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/delingpole_twitter.jpg" title="delingpole_twitter" width="511" /></a></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-profile-related field-type-node-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Related Profile(s) :&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/james-delingpole">James Delingpole</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/bob-carter">Bob Carter</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/ian-plimer">Ian Plimer</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4962">James Delingpole</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/institute-of-public-affairs">Institute of Public Affairs</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6735">gina rinehart</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/965">ian plimer</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/622">bob carter</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/ipa">IPA</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/3833">Climate</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/3279">denier</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2540">desmogblog</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6314">GWPF</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4768">global warming policy foundation</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4670">Nigel Lawson</a></div></div></div>Thu, 13 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000Graham Readfearn6510 at http://www.desmogblog.comAustralians Beware: Soon The Climate Science Deniers Will Be In Chargehttp://www.desmogblog.com/australians-beware-soon-climate-science-deniers-will-be-charge
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/lnp.jpg?itok=WzDwuAQK" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><span class="caps">ANYONE</span> who places stock in safeguarding the current and future climate (and for that matter anyone who doesn't) should prepare themselves for the risk that very soon, climate science deniers, contrarians and sceptics will be running the show.</p>
<p>All the polls suggest that a Liberal-led coalition will sweep to power at next year's Federal election in Australia - the world's biggest exporter of coal and on track to be the biggest exporter of<a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/angola-joins-lng-exporter-ranks/story-e6frg9df-1226411144517" target="_blank"> liquified natural gas</a>.</p>
<p>Current Liberal leader Tony Abbott, if we care to remember, once described climate change as “<a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politics/the-town-that-turned-up-the-temperature/story-e6frgczf-1225809567009" target="_blank">crap</a>”. Views s<a href="http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/09/29/abbotts-climate-change-tea-party-stirs-in-canberra/?wpmp_switcher=mobile&amp;wpmp_tp=1" target="_blank">hared among Abbott's parliamentary coalition ranks</a> are that climate science is a “leftist fad” and a “work of fiction”.</p>
<p>The Liberal-National Party's new Queensland Premier Campbell Newman and his environment minister Andrew Powell are currently presiding over a massive boom in coal and gas projects. Both have<a href="http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/environment/newman-can-do-climate-science-denial-20120607-1zxh8.html" target="_blank"> said they're unable to accept the evidence of human-caused climate change</a>, going against the scientific findings of the country's main science agancy the <span class="caps">CSIRO</span> and the country's Bureau of Meteorology, plus every major science academy on the planet.</p>
<p>Instead the Newmans and Abbotts of this world would rather stake the future of their constituents, our economies, our food supplies and our coastlines on the ideologically-blinkered pseudo-science of narrow vested interests and free market fundamentalists.</p>
<!--break-->
<p>The latest snapshot on this inglorious race to the bottom came last week during the <a href="http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/climate-propaganda-on-lnp-summit-hit-list-20120712-21ygz.html" target="_blank">Queensland <span class="caps">LNP</span> state conference</a> with a motion proposed by the Noosa <span class="caps">LNP</span> member Richard Pearson.</p>
<p>Pearson's motion called on the state's education minister John-Paul Langbroek to “remove environmental propaganda material, in particular post-normal science about ‘climate change’, from the curriculum and as adjunct material at exam time”. The motion was passed with party members overwhelmingly in favour.</p>
<p><span class="caps">LNP</span> state representative <a href="http://www.glenelmes.com/" target="_blank">Glen Elmes</a> recently <a href="http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/documents/tableOffice/HALnks/120531/Address1.pdf" target="_blank">thanked Pearson in parliament</a> for helping him win his Noosa seat at the state election earlier this year (perhaps those visits to Noosa by fake climate experts <a href="http://www.noosanews.com.au/story/2010/02/02/monckton-show-comes-to-noosa/" target="_blank">Christopher Monckton</a> and <a href="http://www.noosanews.com.au/story/2011/07/15/sceptics-to-bring-animated-debate-lord-monckton/" target="_blank">Professor Bob Carter</a> have rubbed off on the Sunshine Coast community).</p>
<p>As reported on <a href="http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/climate-propaganda-on-lnp-summit-hit-list-20120712-21ygz.html" target="_blank">Brisbane Times</a>, Pearson said: “Few people understand that the so called science of climate change is really what can be defined as 'post-normal' science,” before apparently arguing that climate change went beyond traditional understanding of science based on experimentation and falsifiable theories.</p>
<p>To Pearson and others, the experiments of <a href="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Tyndall/" target="_blank">John Tyndall</a> in 1859 which established the warming properties of what we now know to be greenhouse gases just didn't happen. Not in existence either, are the reams of scientific papers over many decades which have attempted but failed to falsify the “theory” that burning fossil fuels is causing the world's average temperature to rise, the oceans to become more acidic, the sea levels to rise and the ice at the poles to melt.</p>
<p>Also not in existence is last week's study by almost 400 scientists (they're everywhere) which showed that greenhouse gas emissions were increasing <a href="http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/bams-state-of-the-climate/2011.php" target="_blank">the likelihood of extreme weather events</a>.</p>
<p>So far, Premier Newman has clarified that while Pearson's motion has been passed by the party, this doesn't mean it will be adopted by the parliamentary group which he leads.</p>
<p>“We will always do the right thing by Queenslanders ahead of the <span class="caps">LNP</span>”, he said, forgetting that just a few weeks ago he told Queenslanders the state was actually “in the coal business”.</p>
<p>Regardless, reaction to the motion has been damning. Anna-Maria Arabia, the chief executive of <a href="http://scienceandtechnologyaustralia.org.au/" target="_blank">Science <span class="amp">&amp;</span> Technology Australia</a>, which represents almost 70,000 scientists and technology experts in Australia, described it as “<a href="http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/opinion/political-news/scientists-reject-lnp-school-move-20120713-221or.html" target="_blank">extremely harmfu</a>l”.</p>
<p>The secretary of the Queensland Teachers' Union Kevin Bates told <a href="http://m.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/no-climate-change-in-school-lnp/story-e6frgczx-1226425782372" target="_blank">The Australian</a> that it was important schools taught children to have an “open mind” (but presumably not so open that your brain falls out). “Our greatest concern is that this is a government that is going to interfere in the education process,” he said.</p>
<p>One blogging research scientist wrote that the motion was “<a href="http://uknowispeaksense.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/preparing-our-children-for-future-ridicule/" target="_blank">preparing our children for future ridicule</a>”.</p>
<p>Helping in this process is the <a href="http://www.thepowerindex.com.au/power-move/ipa-under-fire-from-scientists-over-plimer-book-mail-out/201204051228" target="_blank">Institute for Public Affairs</a>, which has been sending out a discredited book on climate change to Australian schools. The book <em>How To Get Expelled From School</em>, written by Professor Ian Plimer, a member of the board of two of Gina Rinehart's mining companies, was <a href="http://www.readfearn.com/2011/12/plimer-and-howard-maintain-the-rage-with-climate-science-denial/" target="_blank">launched by former Prime Minister John Howard</a>.</p>
<p>At the launch, Professor Plimer said “one of the aims of this book is to maintain the rage, because we have an election coming”. Clearly, Professor Plimer sees his book as a political tool.</p>
<p>While consistently claiming that school children are being brainwashed by climate change “propoganda”, those who push this line rarely (if ever) produce any actual evidence. Pearson didn't define what he meant by “propoganda” or “post normal science”.</p>
<p>Plimer's genuine piece of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda" target="_blank">propaganda</a> was described by the Commonwealth <a href="http://www.climatechange.gov.au/climate-change/understanding-climate-change/response-to-prof-plimer.aspx" target="_blank">Department of Climate Change</a>, which analysed his book, as “misleading” and based on “inaccurate or selective interpretation of the science”.</p>
<p>It should not be forgotten that Tony Abbott isn't afraid of pushing his own misinformed climate dogma on young schoolkids when given the chance.</p>
<p>In 2010, the <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/capital-circle/swings-to-jesuit-educated-mps-across-the-country/story-fn59nqgy-1225908773382" target="_blank">Catholic Jesuit</a> told a class of five and six year olds in Adelaide: “<a href="http://www.readfearn.com/2010/05/after-first-break-well-have-some-dogma/" target="_blank"><span class="caps">OK</span>, so the climate has changed over the eons and we know from history, at the time of Julius Caesar and Jesus of Nazareth the climate was considerably warmer than it is now</a>.”</p>
<p>Nobody should be surprised that conservative politicians are unable to accept climate change science. A survey of political representatives at local, state and federal level carried out in late 2009 found that acceptance of climate change science was divided along political lines.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.issr.uq.edu.au/sites/default/files/PLCCI-report-Kelly-Fielding.pdf" target="_blank">University of Queensland survey</a> found only about one third of Liberal/National politicians accepted the world was warming because of human activity. This compared to nine out of ten Labor politicians and practically all Greens.</p>
<p>Then there's the “<a href="http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/environment/climate-change/the-cwm-effect-what-climate-changes-biggest-sceptics-have-in-common-20110818-1izd6.html" target="_blank">conservative white male effect</a>” discovered by scientists (yes, them again) in the <span class="caps">US</span> linking the described demographic to the denial of human-caused climate change.</p>
<p>The Australian conservative political movement's lurch towards the denial of human-caused climate science is like a mirror-image of the same enlightenment-crushing ideas of many <span class="caps">US</span> Republicans.</p>
<p>None of the recent candidates for the Republican presidential nomination (excusing possibly <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/12/jon-huntsman-goes-squishy-on-climate-change/249578/" target="_blank">John Huntsman</a>) were able to publicly back climate change science, with <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/02/02/416907/romney-bashes-climate-policy-as-soros-agenda-in-florida-mailer/" target="_blank">some reverting to scepticism</a> after previously accepting the issue.</p>
<p>Also in common with the <span class="caps">US</span>, is the existence of Tea Party-style “grassroots” activism in Australia helped along by free market think tanks that claim regulating greenhouse gas emissions is an attack on our freedom.</p>
<p>But rather than have an honest debate about a policy response to a real world risk, they sink to trying to discredit climate science while telling the public that carbon dioxide from burning coal is just “food for plants”.</p>
<p>Earlier this week the climate sceptic organisation the <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/denial-down-under-galileo-movement" target="_blank">Galileo Movement</a>, founded by two retired Noosa (is there something in the water there?) businessmen, <a href="https://twitter.com/GalileoMovement/status/224684881760894977" target="_blank">tweeted a link</a> to a document written by Viv Forbes claiming coal was not dirty and <span class="caps">CO</span>2 was plant food. No mention anywhere in the document that Forbes is a <a href="http://www.stanmorecoal.com.au/corporate_directors_and_management.aspx" target="_blank">director of Stanmore Coal</a>.</p>
<p>Galileo's patron is Sydney radio host Alan Jones, who recently told a crowd that climate science was “<a href="http://theland.farmonline.com.au/news/nationalrural/agribusiness-and-general/political/climate-change-witchcraft-jones/2609412.aspx" target="_blank">witchcraft</a>” and a “hoax”.</p>
<p>Our descent into the deluded world of pseudo-science occupied by astrology, creationism, crystal healing and homeopathy is almost complete. It's a place where progress dies and business-as-usual thrives.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-profile-related field-type-node-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Related Profile(s) :&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/ian-plimer">Ian Plimer</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/bob-carter">Bob Carter</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/institute-of-public-affairs">Institute of Public Affairs</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/ipa">IPA</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/john-howard">John Howard</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/965">ian plimer</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6878">Tony Abbott</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7101">queensland</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9693">jesuit</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9694">noosa</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9695">lnp</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9696">campbell newman</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9697">andrew powell</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9698">richard pearson</a></div></div></div>Wed, 18 Jul 2012 09:07:24 +0000Graham Readfearn6429 at http://www.desmogblog.comDonna Laframboise Flown To Australia By Climate Science Denying Think Tankhttp://www.desmogblog.com/donna-laframboise-flown-australia-climate-science-denying-think-tank
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/delinquent.jpg?itok=lnMqVycf" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><span class="caps">CANADIAN</span> blogger and climate science sceptic Donna Laframboise has flown off for a tour of Australia to tell anyone willing to listen that the world's foremost body on climate change, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is something resembling a shambling mess.</p>
<p>Laframboise's trip has been organised by free market think tank the <a href="http://www.ipa.org.au/events/information/year/2012/event/donna-laframboise" target="_blank">Institute of Public Affairs</a>, which has a long history of promoting doubt about the science of human-caused climate change and the risks of the unmitigated burning of fossil fuels.</p>
<p>The blogger, who describes herself as an investigative journalist, gets to visit Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth to promote her book “<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Delinquent-Teenager-Mistaken-Climate-ebook/dp/B005UEVB8Q" target="_blank">The Delinquent Teenager Who Was Mistaken For The World's Top Climate Expert - <span class="caps">IPCC</span> Expose.</a>”</p>
<p>The <span class="caps">IPA</span> describe's Laframboise as a “world renowned author” which is stretching credibility to breaking point. This “world renowned author” has written just two books. Her first was about feminism published in 1996. The Delinquent Teenager is her second, and is currently ranked #17952 in the book seller Amazon's Kindle store [#41,202 in the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> Amazon Kindle Store.]</p>
<p>Essentially the book makes three central claims. The first is that the <span class="caps">IPCC</span> has engaged several young scientists which Laframboise says goes against the <span class="caps">IPCC</span>'s claims that they use the world's top scientists. A second is that some of the scientists working on some of the reports have links to environmental groups which are not always made clear. A third is that the <span class="caps">IPCC</span> reports use too much non-peer reviewed literature.</p>
<p>All of these arguments are used as a proxy to question the science. Yet the <span class="caps">IPCC</span>'s main climate change reports (the latest being the 2007 Assessment Report 4, the next being <span class="caps">AR</span>5 currently being worked on by more than 800 authors and expected some time in late 2013 or early 2014) don't actually do any science.</p>
<p>They are reviews - albeit almighty ones - of research being conducted at institutions around the world and of scientific papers published in journals. This means that even if the <span class="caps">IPCC</span> was found to be run by a small group of mentally-challenged llamas, this wouldn't affect the science on human-caused climate change. In essence, Laframboise's book is one giant strawman argument.</p>
<!--break-->
<p>Laframboise claims that “experts” with alternative views on climate change have been left out of the <span class="caps">IPCC</span> process. She cites Nils-Axel Morner as evidence of this, a former president of the Commission on Sea Level Change, which was once a project of the <a href="http://www.inqua.org/" target="_blank">International Union of Quartenary Research</a>, an organisation consisting of scientists from across the world studying the climate going back two million years. Needless to say, Morner claims there's no link between climate change and sea levels.</p>
<p>In her book, Laframboise quotes Morner as saying there is a “disparity between what genuine sea level specialists think and what those who write <span class="caps">IPCC</span> reports believe”. The impression left is that Morner is representative of “genuine sea level specialists”. He is not.</p>
<p>What does <span class="caps">INQUA</span> make of Morner's position? In 2004, the union's then president John Clague wrote a letter to the Russian Academy of Sciences which had hosted an event where Morner had given a presentation. Mr Clague wrote that Morner had “misrepresented his position with <span class="caps">INQUA</span>”, as the commission which Axel-Morner had been president of had terminated the previous year.</p>
<p>Clague then added</p>
<blockquote>
Dr. Mörner currently has no formal position in <span class="caps">INQUA</span>, and I am distressed that he continues to represent himself in his former capacity. Further, <span class="caps">INQUA</span>, which is an umbrella organization for hundreds of researchers knowledgeable about past climate, does not subscribe to Mörner’s position on climate change. Nearly all of these researchers agree that humans are modifying Earth’s climate, a position diametrically opposed to Dr. Mörner’s point of view.</blockquote>
<p>As reported on the <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2009/11/08/the-australians-war-on-science-42/" style="color: rgb(51, 153, 204); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Deltoid</a> blog, <span class="caps">INQUA</span> repeated this assertion when I contacted them about a story in 2009. A statement then from the president of <span class="caps">INQUA</span> added:</p>
<blockquote>
Dr Morner’s views concerning sea-level change are his own and are not endorsed by the current Executive Committee of <span class="caps">INQUA</span>, nor have previous <span class="caps">INQUA</span> Executive Committees endorsed Dr Morner’s views. On several occasions <span class="caps">INQUA</span> has requested of Dr Morner that he not inadvertently represent his views on sea-level change as if they have some connection with <span class="caps">INQUA</span>.</blockquote>
<p>Event after these two incidents, Morner has continued to misrepresent the view of <span class="caps">INQUA</span>. Last year, he <a href="http://www.skepticalscience.com/Nils-Axel-Morner-wrong-about-sea-level-rise.html" target="_blank">wrote for The Spectator</a> that the organisation's research was an “inconvenient truth” for the climate lobby, while the organisation itself says human caused climate change is real and that “<a href="http://www.inqua.org/documents/iscc.pdf">Every year, many millions of people will be forced from their land and homes due to sea-level rise</a>”.</p>
<p>Laframboise doesn't mention any of this in her book. Nor does she mention that Dr Morner believes you can find water underground by using a stick. That's right, he's a <a href="http://www.randi.org/hotline/1998/0012.html" target="_blank">water diviner</a>.</p>
<p>Laframboise's book pours scorn on the <span class="caps">IPCC</span> for choosing the occasional young scientist to carry out tasks as authors. So Laframboise is comfortable with the authority of the 74-year-old water diviner Morner, but not comfortable with the <span class="caps">IPCC</span> occasionally using some of the world's brightest young scientific minds.</p>
<p>When Fox News based an <span class="caps">IPCC</span> “expose” on Laframboise's book, <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2011/11/03/fox-scraping-the-barrel-for-attacks-on-un-clima/174681" target="_blank">Media Matters</a> found that when it came to issues on the qualifications of the handful of young scientists, key facts had been missed or omitted.</p>
<p>In a televised interview with Australian climate science sceptic columnist <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYPwPXNazOs" target="_blank">Andrew Bolt</a>, Laframboise speculates that some <span class="caps">IPCC</span> authors were chosen because they agreed with the orthodoxy, rather than because they might be good at their jobs.</p>
<blockquote>
People were chosen because they could be easily led… perhaps because they had already expressed the kind of opinion the <span class="caps">IPCC</span> brass was hoping the report would express. It's not clear but it certainly looks fishy.</blockquote>
<p>Yet if this really was the conspiracy to keep out dissenting voices which Laframboise hints at, then how does she explain the presence of well known climate science sceptics such as <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/william-kininmonth">William Kininmonth</a>, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/ross-mckitrick">Ross McKitrick</a> and <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/steve-mcintyre">Stephen McIntyre</a> who were all given roles as “expert reviewers” in the last <span class="caps">IPCC</span> report?</p>
<p>Laframboise's book also hints at a conspiracy because she found some authors of <span class="caps">IPCC</span> reports have affiliations or histories with environment groups. In one case, Laframboise accuses the <span class="caps">IPCC</span> of committing a “sin of omission” by neglecting to point out that William Hare, a visiting scientist at the Potsdam Institute, has strong ties to Greenpeace.</p>
<p>Why did Laframboise go looking for scientists with links to environment groups while ignoring, for example, the presence of a “<a href="http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/annexessannex-iii.html" target="_blank">Haroon Kheshgi</a>” from the “ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company” or that oil company's many other <a href="http://www.exxonmobil.com/Corporate/investor_issues_contributedpapers.aspx" target="_blank">contributions to <span class="caps">IPCC</span></a> reports?</p>
<p>No mention either in her book of Ross McKitrick's position as senior fellow of free market think-tank The Fraser Institute, or William Kininmonth's roles as an advisor for several climate sceptic groups. She describes <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/steve-mcintyre">Steve McIntyre</a> as a “Canadian with a Masters degree in mathematics and a flair for statistics” but doesn't mention his 30-year career in the mining industry. Would all of these examples qualify for a Laframboise “sin of omission”, perhaps?</p>
<p>In the book, Laframboise writes that she sent draft copies to some “wonderful people” for comments. Sceptics Ross McKitrick, the <span class="caps">IPA</span>'s science fellow Professor <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/rm-bob-carter">Bob Carter</a> and recent <span class="caps">IPA</span> invitee James Delingpole were among her list of reviewers.</p>
<p>Had she sent the book to Professor Roger Jones at Australia's Victoria University, she may have received a different response. Jones was a Convening Lead Author for the 2007 <span class="caps">IPCC</span> assessment report and is a Convening Lead Author for the <span class="caps">IPCC</span>'s next main report. He was also a lead author on the 2001 Third Assessment Report.</p>
<p>In a post on Jones' <a href="The epic fail in Laframboise’ case is that there is no credible alternative scholarship that exists to counter the sustained and substantive findings of the IPCC. If the IPCC has failings, it is in framing the science-policy relationship (which is also improving substantially), but there are no alternative facts to the science that the IPCC assesses and summarises in their conclusions." target="_blank">Understanding Climate Risk</a> blog, he pulls apart Laframboise's claims as being invalid, although he's not quite that polite.</p>
<blockquote>
Apparently the selection of a few lead authors who are not hoary old farts who have gone emeritus, disqualifies the <span class="caps">IPCC</span> from saying anything useful…. all the young authors that Laframboise picked on have made sustained and substantial contributions since their first efforts on the <span class="caps">IPCC</span>.<br /><p><br />
The epic fail in Laframboise’ case is that there is no credible alternative scholarship that exists to counter the sustained and substantive findings of the <span class="caps">IPCC</span>. If the <span class="caps">IPCC</span> has failings, it is in framing the science-policy relationship (which is also improving substantially), but there are no alternative facts to the science that the <span class="caps">IPCC</span> assesses and summarises in their conclusions.</p>
</blockquote>
<br /><p>Jones then puts his mind to the involvement of the <span class="caps">IPA</span>, an organisation which does not reveal its funders (but which is engaged in a project with the world's richest woman, mining magnate Gina Rinehart).</p>
<p>Jones publishes an excerpt of a letter sent by the think tank's executive director John Roskam, which states that the <span class="caps">IPCC</span> had produced “corrupt science”. Roskam is also on the editorial board of Connor Court, which is adding Laframboise's effort to a string of climate science contrarian books it has already published.</p>
<p>All this appears to have been the final straw for Jones.</p>
<blockquote>
The <span class="caps">IPA</span> is anti-science and consequently a risk to society. That is quite clear. They need to be opposed at every turn.</blockquote>
<p>Laframboise is just the latest in a long string of climate change science contrarians which the <span class="caps">IPA</span> has supported by organising book and speaking tours and visiting lectures. Their record goes back to at least 1991, when the Melbourne-based think tank hosted <span class="caps">US</span>-based sceptic <a href="http://ipa.org.au/library/publication/1211161206_document_review1992_vol.45no.1.pdf" target="_blank">Fred Singer</a>.</p>
<p>Since then, the <span class="caps">IPA</span> has hosted a string of climate science “sceptics”, including Australia's own <a href="http://www.ipa.org.au/events/information/year/2010/event/book-launch-climate-the-counter-consensus-with-the-hon-rodney-hide " target="_blank">Professor Bob Carter</a> and <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/climate-science-denier-ian-plimer-recruits-former-australian-pm-launch-book-targeting-children" target="_blank">Professor Ian Plimer</a>, <span class="caps">UK</span> columnist <a href="http://www.ipa.org.au/events/information/year/2012/event/james-delingpole" target="_blank">James Delingpole</a>, Czech Republic President <a href="http://www.ipa.org.au/events/information/year/2011/event/vaclav-klaus---threats-to-freedom-in-the-21st-century---perth-lunch-and-address" target="_blank">Vaclav Klaus</a>, the <span class="caps">US</span>-based Cato Institute's <a href="http://ipa.org.au/publications/1761/patrick-j-michaels-climate-of-extremes/pg/3" target="_blank">Pat Michaels</a> and former <span class="caps">UK</span> chancellor <a href="http://www.ipa.org.au/library/LAWSON_ClimateChange.pdf" target="_blank">Lord Nigel Lawson</a>, who is the chairman of the London-based Global Warming Policy Foundation.</p>
<p>The <span class="caps">IPA</span> consistently seeks out and supports climate science denial wherever it might exist on the planet. Genuine working climate scientists are just not their thing.</p>
<p>You could almost imagine such think tanks might have an actual organised program to bring climate sceptics to Australia - perhaps a <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/IPA Advert.jpg" target="_blank">Climate Science Denier Visitor Scheme</a>?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/IPA Advert.jpg" target="_blank">Apply now</a> ( design by Jarren Nylund, <a href="http://www.designgood.com.au/" target="_blank">Design Good</a> )<br /><img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/IPA Advert.jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 778px; " /></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-profile-related field-type-node-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Related Profile(s) :&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/steve-mcintyre">Steve McIntyre</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/bob-carter">Bob Carter</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/ross-mckitrick">Ross McKitrick</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/donna-laframboise">Donna Laframboise</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/william-kininmonth">William Kininmonth</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/nils-axel-morner">Nils-Axel Morner</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/institute-of-public-affairs">Institute of Public Affairs</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/ross-mckitrick">ross mckitrick</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/australia">Australia</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/ipa">IPA</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/fraser-institute">Fraser Institute</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/622">bob carter</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1505">Steve McIntyre</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2540">desmogblog</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/3062">climate denial</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4368">John Roskam</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4962">James Delingpole</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5718">William Kininmonth</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6735">gina rinehart</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8831">Donna Laframboise</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9564">delinquent teenager</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9565">roger jones</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9566">niles-axel morner</a></div></div></div>Mon, 09 Jul 2012 01:40:36 +0000Graham Readfearn6410 at http://www.desmogblog.comCommonwealth Business Council Picks In-house Denier To Chair Climate Forumhttp://www.desmogblog.com/commonwealth-business-council-picks-house-denier-chair-climate-forum
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/cbc.jpg?itok=6F--18T_" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><span class="caps">IF</span> you were going to have a serious high-level discussion about, say, improving science teaching in schools, then who would you invite to chair the meeting?</p>
<p>How about an astrologer? Perhaps a purveyor of crystal healing would be a good choice? Maybe a creationist, a fortune teller or a spiritual healer?</p>
<p>Well of course not. This would be ridiculous. But just hold that thought for a minute.</p>
<p>A few days ago, the <a href="http://www.cbcglobal.org/CBC_Pages/AboutCBC.aspx" target="_blank">Commonwealth Business Council</a> brought its high-level bi-annual forum –hosted in Perth, Western Australia – to a close.</p>
<p>The <span class="caps">CBC</span> boasts membership from 54 countries, across five continents with more than 100 member companies. Among its goals, the <span class="caps">CBC</span> aims to “provide leadership in increasing international trade” and to promote “good governance and corporate social responsibility”.</p>
<p>Among those in attendance at the <a href="http://www.cbf2011.com/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=SbRvhODtN-8=&amp;tabid=1232" target="_blank"><span class="caps">CBC</span> forum</a> were the Australian Prime Minister, senior Australian cabinet members, ministers from South Africa, the <span class="caps">UK</span>, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Rawanda and the Caribbean.</p>
<div>
There were senior representatives from international energy and mining companies, including <span class="caps">BP</span>, Woodside, RioTinto, Shell and Hancock Prospecting.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
With all of that power and influence in the one place, organisers promised that the meeting would likely spawn many multi-million dollar international business deals.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
But the meeting also broke-up with the news that, among other things, it had failed to reach any kind of agreement on tackling climate change.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
According to a report in <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/business-leaders-warning-on-danger-of-double-dip/story-fn9hlxnq-1226178885439" target="_blank">The Australian</a>, the London-based council’s director-general Mohan Kaul said this lack of an agreement was down to the “diverse views” of those businesses in attendance.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Mark Barnaba, the forum’s steering committee co-chairman, said the lack of consensus was “unsurprising”.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Indeed, this lack of agreement was unsurprising. Even an astrologer could have correctly predicted it, given the person they asked to chair the forum's climate change session.</div>
<div>
</div>
<!--break-->
<div>
Titled, “Tackling Climate Change and Energy Challenges: A Government Business Partnership” the session’s contributors included Australia’s Climate Change Minister Greg Combet and ministers from the <span class="caps">UK</span>, South Africa and Bangladesh.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
I now ask you to recall those astrologers and fortune tellers, because they're my analogy for the chair of the session - businessman Hugh Morgan, a denier of the science of human-caused climate change.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Quite how, or why, he was given this gig is almost as unfathomable in its stupidity as the idea the motion of a distant planet can influence whether or not I’m going to win at the lottery (which I’m not, because I don’t enter, and I know not if this is a Sagittarian trait).</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Morgan, who is on the <a href="http://www.cbcglobal.org/CBC_Pages/Management.aspx" target="_blank"><span class="caps">CBC</span>'s board of directors</a>, is a founder member and current president of the Lavoisier Group, launched in Victoria in 2000. The group was set-up chiefly to oppose any regulation on greenhouse gases.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
In his latest “President’s Report” on the <a href="http://www.lavoisier.com.au/index.php" target="_blank">Lavoisier Group</a>’s website, Morgan concludes: “We have been doing everything possible in recent years to destroy our coal-fired electricity industry in the superstitious belief that carbon dioxide is a pollutant.”</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Also on the website, you can enjoy articles such as “Is the Western Climate Establishment Corrupt” and “Nine Lies About Global Warming”.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Hugh Morgan, 71, is also a former director at the Institute for Public Affairs, a free-market think-tank which promotes climate science denial and consistently attacks the efficacy of the renewable energy industry.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Commenting on Morgan's role at the <span class="caps">CBC</span>, Australian Senator Christine Milne told <a href="http://www.thepowerindex.com.au/power-move/warming-sceptic-hugh-morgan-hosted-climate-change-panel-at-chogm/20111103664" target="_blank">The Power Index</a> news website</div>
<div>
<div style="border: 1px solid LightGrey; margin: 10px; padding: 10px; width: 87%;">
I think Australians deserve to know who made the decision to invite one of the country's most aggressive and thoroughly debunked climate deniers to chair a Commonwealth meeting on climate action. Given his long-standing public campaigning against climate action, what role did Mr Morgan play in this meeting?</div>
<div>
Morgan is also a member of the lobby group <a href="http://www.andev-project.org/industry-voice/" target="_blank">Australians for Northern Development and Economic Vision</a>, which wants to create a separate economic zone in the north of Australia with low-tax and low-regulation to promote mining industry development.He was also the boss of the Western Mining Corporation and includes on his <span class="caps">CV</span> stints on the board of Australia's Reserve Bank and the Presidency of the Business Council of Australia.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<span class="caps">ANDEV</span> was established by Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart, chairman of Hancock Prospecting, promoter of climate science denial and speaker at the <span class="caps">CBC</span> forum. Rinehart has twice supported tours of climate “sceptic” Lord Christopher Monckton.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Also an <span class="caps">ANDEV</span> member is climate sceptic and mining entrepreneur Professor Ian Plimer, who Rinehart <a href="http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/07/29/sceptics-on-the-menu-at-rineharts-big-luncheon-bash/" target="_blank">passed-off as a climate expert</a> in front of another influential audience earlier this year.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Morgan is also on the advisory board of the Tony Abbott-led Australian Opposition’s <a href="http://www.greghunt.com.au/Pages/article.aspx?ID=2066" target="_blank">climate policy advisory board</a>.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Putting a man like Hugh Morgan in a position of influence on climate change is a bit like.. well.. asking an astrologer how we should teach science to kids.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
The act is irresponsible and the result will be highly predictable.</div>
</div>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-profile-related field-type-node-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Related Profile(s) :&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/christopher-monckton">Christopher Monckton</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/ian-plimer">Ian Plimer</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/institute-of-public-affairs">Institute of Public Affairs</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/591">christopher monckton</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/965">ian plimer</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1002">bp</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1268">shell</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5719">Lavoisier Group</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6735">gina rinehart</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6878">Tony Abbott</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7220">woodside</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7617">Hugh Morgan</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7618">Greg Combet</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7619">Commonwealth Business Council</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7620">ANDEV</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7621">RioTinto</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7622">Hancock Prospecting</a></div></div></div>Sat, 05 Nov 2011 23:22:13 +0000Graham Readfearn5833 at http://www.desmogblog.comAustralia Gets a Price on Carbon Despite Toxic Anti-Science Campaignhttp://www.desmogblog.com/australia-gets-price-carbon-despite-toxic-anti-science-campaign
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/carbon_rally.jpg?itok=TyeS15Um" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><span class="caps">THEY</span> paid millions of dollars for adverts on television, in newspapers and online. They flew in climate change deniers from across the globe. They held rallies, engaged prominent right-wing media personalities, threatened scientists and turned the cold non-partisan findings of peer-reviewed science into some kind of blood sport.</p>
<p>But despite what was surely the dirtiest and most dishonest campaign ever waged before the Australian public, from next July major industrial emitters of greenhouse gases (about 500 of them) will have to pay $23 for every tonne of their pollution <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-12/accusations-fly-as-carbon-bills-pass/3551822">under laws passed earlier today</a>.</p>
<p>The torrent of self-interest, archaic so-called “free-market” ideology and unmitigated greenhouse gas pollution, will give way to modest payments for the right to continue to pollute, while placing billions into funds to finance clean energy projects.<br /><br />
Away from the propaganda, the bare facts read like this. The laws now pass to the Senate for a vote in early November.</p>
<p>The previous Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme legislation also got this far but was voted down twice in 2009 before it was deferred permanently by then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.</p>
<p>This time though, the Greens who helped forge the bills which make up the Clean Energy Future package hold the balance of power in the upper house. Barring something extraordinary, which noone - not even the Opposition - is able to envisage, the laws will pass.</p>
<p>From 1 July 2012, Australia's largest emitters of greenhouse gas emissions will have to pay a fixed price of $23 per tonne of pollution produced here. The price will rise to $25.40 per tonne in 2014/15. From 1 July 2015, an emissions trading scheme will be introduced where the government releases a fixed number of permits which major emitters will need to purchase through auctions. In the early stages, major industries will be given permits for free, but the assistance gets scaled back. The number of permits released by the government will be capped to enable Australia to cut its emissions by five per cent by 2020, based on 2000 levels.</p>
<!--break-->
<p>Despite Prime Minister Julie Gillard promising in the run up to the 2010 Federal election that she wouldn't introduce a price on carbon under “any government I lead”, a hung parliament left her no choice. The Greens and independents demanded the carbon price be put back on the agenda, in return for a deal that would <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-12/accusations-fly-as-carbon-bills-pass/3551822">keep Gillard in power</a>. </p>
<p>Labor and the Greens say the carbon price will open the floodgates for investment in renewable energy. Renewable energy advocates <a href="http://beyondzeroemissions.org/media/newswire/smh-electric-dreams-must-step-gas-110315" target="_blank">Beyond Zero Emissions</a> have claimed that unless the price gets close to $100 per tonne, then Australia will merely shift from brining coal to another fossil fuel - gas. </p>
<p>And while Australia acts on emissions produced on its own territory, it continues to cement its position as the world's biggest exporter of coal.</p>
<p>But what of that anti-tax campaign? The one which failed?</p>
<p>Earlier today, Greens Senator Christine Milne told me</p>
<div>
<div style="border: 1px solid LightGrey; margin: 10px; padding: 10px; width: 87%;">
This has been an appalling campaign of dishonesty with deliberate misinformation both on the science and on the economics - even to the extent of what is happening on climate change around the rest of the world. It has been highly personal. It is the same suite of interests that have undermined action on climate change for years - they moved on from cigarettes and tobacco to climate change.</div>
<div>
<div>
Essentially this year's campaign had two aims. The first was to claim the tax would be a jobs destroyer and raise the cost of living to unmanageable levels - claims which didn't bear up to scrutiny. The second, was to undermine the science of climate change.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
In June, the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies revealed it had helped to pay for British climate change sceptic to fly to Australia for a tour, starting with a speech at their annual conference. But before Lord Monckton arrived, he was in hot water after it was revealed on <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2765990.html" target="_blank">The Drum</a> that he had compared Australia's former climate change policy advisor Professor Ross Garnaut to a Nazi - displaying a large swastika next to a quote from Professor Garnaut.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Also supporting Lord Monckton was Hancock Prospecting chairman and mining magnate Gina Rinehart, Australia's richest person, who paid for him to give a lecture at Notre Dame University near Perth. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
As reported in <a href="http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/07/29/sceptics-on-the-menu-at-rineharts-big-luncheon-bash/" target="_blank">Crikey</a>, Rinehart also sprung prominent climate change sceptic, mining entrepreneur and geology professor Ian Plimer on an audience at a lunch at her own home, which included <span class="caps">WA</span> Premier Colin Barnett and the Chinese Ambassador.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Then in July, the Australian Coal Association and the Minerals Council of Australia joined with other industry groups to form the launch a campaign against the tax. Reports suggested the group was willing to spend at least $10 million on the campaign (we won't know how much was spent, until the Australian Electoral Commission publishes its annual figures on political expenditure, which for the current financial year won't be until February 2013).</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
In July and August, the “free-market” think-tank the Institute of Public Affairs, a proud long-time advocate for climate change denial, also started running full-page adverts in <em>The Australian</em>.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
The <span class="caps">IPA</span> also organised an Australia-wide tour for Czech Republic President Vaclav Klaus, who told audiences human-caused climate change was a “dangerous faith” rather than an issue backed by every major science academy in the world.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Former <span class="caps">UK</span> finance minister Lord Nigel Lawson, now chairman of the climate sceptic “think-tank” the <a href="http://www.thegwpf.org/" target="_blank">Global Warming Policy Foundation</a> (which, like the <span class="caps">IPA</span>, refuses to disclose its funders) was flown out to speak.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
All the while, climate change scientists continued to receive <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2754194.html" target="_blank">abusive and threatening emails</a> designed to get them to <a href="http://theconversation.edu.au/threats-may-chill-climate-research-in-long-run-1689" target="_blank">withdraw from the public space</a> - a campaign which they have endured for several years. One young researcher had excrement smeared on her car, another researcher was sent a message suggesting the sender would be happy to introduce her children to the local paedophile.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Many rallies were organised, where Prime Minister Julie Gillard was depicted on placards as a witch and where crowds chanted “ditch the bitch”. Opposition politicians lent their support and spoke at the rallies, including Liberal leader Tony Abbott, Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi, Liberal <span class="caps">MP</span> Sophie Mirabella, Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce and Liberal Semator Eric Abetz.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
There was also the “convoy of no confidence” which promised thousands of vehicles would descend on Canberra but, in the end, delivered a couple of hundred, prompting Labor Minister Anthony Albanese to re-title the rally the “convoy of no consequence”. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
In return for asking Alan Jones if he was being paid to appear at one rally, Sydney Morning Herald journalist <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/the-fee-me-and-alan-jones-how-question-of-money-turned-crowd-nasty-20110822-1j6fu.html" target="_blank">Jacqueline Maley</a> was publicly intimidated. When <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/rn/backgroundbriefing/stories/2011/3268730.htm" target="_blank"><span class="caps">ABC</span> Radio National journalist Wendy Carlisle</a> attended one rally to hear Lord Monckton speak, she was physically jostled. Lord Monckton even threatened to sue the <span class="caps">ABC</span> because many of its presenters had asked him questions he didn't like, at one point calling the organisation's chairman Maurice Newman a “<a href="http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/07/22/monckton-threatens-to-sue-abc-calls-chairman-a-shrimp/" target="_blank">shrimp-like wet little individual</a>”.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
There were fightbacks, with community advocacy group Get Up! running their own adverts and organising rallies and a group of environmental charities getting behind a “Say Yes” campaign. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
The final push from the deniers of human-caused climate change went totally unnoticed. On September 29, president of The Climate Sceptics Party Leon Ashby sent an email to his supporters, indicating they had joined with seven other anti-carbon tax groups in a letter writing campaign to <span class="caps">MP</span>s.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
The <a href="http://www.readfearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/climate_sceptics_crean_letter.doc" target="_blank">attachment with the email</a> contained a template letter and one page of instructions to supporters. The template's author was Malcolm Roberts, the project leader for the <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/denial-down-under-galileo-movement" target="_blank">Galileo Movement</a>, whose patron is radio shock-jock Alan Jones with an advisory panel which includes News Ltd columnist Andrew Bolt and a swathe of climate sceptics including Lord <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/christopher-monckton">Christopher Monckton</a>.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
“Help Make Two Weeks of Thunder”, screamed the letter. Recipients were asked to change the wording because “politicians disregard form letters”. Letter writers should “cc” copies of their letters to media personalities. Roberts told them these personalities should be The Australian newspaper's editor-in-chief Chris Mitchell, Andrew Bolt, Alan Jones, <span class="caps">2SM</span> radio presenters Carter Edwards and Grant Goldman and, finally, resources and energy minister Martin Ferguson, who the letter claimed was “strongly sceptical” on the tax. A first letter encouraged supporters to target Minister Simon Crean while a second communication encouraged supporters to target <span class="caps">MP</span>s in marginal Labor seats.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
But as it turned out, the thunderous campaigning failed to deliver a lightning strike to bring down the legislation, which passed earlier today by 74 votes to 72.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Hours before the laws were passed, Tony Abbott - whose Coalition is well ahead in the polls - managed to turn his anti-carbon tax rhetoric up to 11 on <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2011/s3337450.htm" target="_blank"><span class="caps">ABC</span> radio</a> by pledging to repeal the laws. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
“This is a pledge in blood: this tax will go. We can get rid of it, we will get rid of it, we must get rid of it.”</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
To be continued?</div>
</div>
</div>
<p><em>Pic credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mugfaker/" target="_blank">Flickr/mugfaker</a></em></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-profile-related field-type-node-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Related Profile(s) :&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/christopher-monckton">Christopher Monckton</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/institute-of-public-affairs">Institute of Public Affairs</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/australia">Australia</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/ipa">IPA</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/vaclav-klaus">Vaclav Klaus</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/591">christopher monckton</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/662">coal</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/965">ian plimer</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1287">gas</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1821">denial</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5319">clean energy future</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6875">carbon price</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6878">Tony Abbott</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7033">galileo movement</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7280">chris mitchell</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7468">minerals council</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7469">alan jones</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7470">andrew bolt</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7471">julia gillard</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7472">malcolm roberts</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7473">Martin Ferguson</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7474">Cory Bernardi</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7475">Sophie Mirabella</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7476">barnaby joyce</a></div></div></div>Wed, 12 Oct 2011 06:08:49 +0000Graham Readfearn5791 at http://www.desmogblog.comGlobal Warming Deniers Part Ways: Australian Institute of Public Affairs Says Goodbye to Jennifer Marohasyhttp://www.desmogblog.com/global-warming-deniers-part-ways-australian-institute-public-affairs-says-goodbye-jennifer-marohasy
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The Center for Media and Democracy <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/node/8452" target="”_blank”"><span class="caps">PR</span> Watch</a> reports that an Australian corporate funded think tank, the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Institute_of_Public_Affairs" target="”_blank”">Institute of Public Affairs</a> (<span class="caps">IPA</span>) is not renewing the contract for <a href="http://jennifermarohasy.com" target="”_blank”">Jennifer Marohasy</a>, one of its Senior Fellows and a <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/global-warming-denier-database">global warming denier.</a></p>
<p>The news is actually somewhat surprising. <span class="caps">IPA</span> is a right-wing, corporate funded think tank with close ties to the Liberal Party of Australia (which is actually on the political right). Its Executive Director John Roskam is a former Howard government staffer and one of the organization’s key positions is to refute the science on issues such as climate change. A position that Marohasy promoted with vigor during her six-year tenure at <span class="caps">IPA</span>, though not all of her attempts to spread global warming denial came to fruition.</p>
<blockquote>
“I had great hopes for the planned collaboration between the <span class="caps">IPA</span> and University of Queensland on evidence-based environmentalism but the University proved too timid and conservative – at least for me.” - <a href="http://jennifermarohasy.com/blog/2009/07/jennifer-marohasy-leaves-the-ipa" target="”_blank”">JenniferMarohasy.com</a></blockquote>
<p>Marohasy has also left her position as Executive at the Orwellian named <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Australian_Environment_Foundation" target="”_blank”">Australian Environment Foundation</a> (<span class="caps">AEF</span>), which was established to help protect timber interests in Australia and founded by the <span class="caps">IPA</span>. The former Executive Director of the <span class="caps">IPA</span> described the <span class="caps">AEF</span> as “pro-biotechnology, pro-nuclear power, pro-modern farming, pro-economic growth, pro-business and pro-environment.” That last pro might be questionable.</p>
<p><!--break--></p>
<p>Marohasy wrote of the resignation on her blog, “My five years with the organisation was always challenging and at times very rewarding. I gave the organisation a lot, and it is now time to move on.” Which is generally the case when an organization doesn’t renew your contract.</p>
<p>While <strong><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/global-warming-denier-database">global warming deniers</a></strong> may miss her (though given her failure to mention Roskam in her departing blog post, one is left to wonder if the <span class="caps">IPA</span> will miss her), the Australian environmental community will not. Among her accomplishments at <span class="caps">IPA</span>, she contested the severity of reduced water flows in the <a href="http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2009/world/australia-drought-water-scarcity-desertification" target="”_blank”">Murray-Darling river system</a> although she failed to disclose that her work was being funded by Murray Irrigation Limited.</p>
<p>She also publicly asserted that global warming will be good for the Great Barrier Reef and that coral bleaching is no big deal:</p>
<blockquote>
The expected rise in sea level associated with global warming may benefit coral reefs and the Great Barrier Reef is likely to extend its range further south. - <a href="http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21144521-601,00.html" target="”_blank”">The Australian</a></blockquote>
<p>How does she know? It’s unclear. Why should we believe it? Because she says so.</p>
<p>Or there’s this nugget of Marohasy logic regarding suggestions that Australians both put money into the Australian economy <span class="caps">AND</span> choose lower emissions foods to eat:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>But should government on the one hand be suggesting low emission sources of food, and on the other suggesting Australians buy more “stuff”?</p>
<p>The reality is that you cannot have it both ways.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Huh? <strong>That's</strong> the reality?</p>
<p>Or how about using Former Senator (R-<span class="caps">NM</span>) and astronaut <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/harrison-schmitt" target="_blank">Harrison Schmitt</a>, who is also chairman emeritus of The Annapolis Center for Science-Based Public Policy, an organization funded by ExxonMobil, as the authority on climate issues. A man whose views run counter to atomic science:</p>
<blockquote>
Schmitt has apparently figured out that <span class="caps">CO</span>2 concentrations are increasing because the temperature is increasing. That’s a really amazing scientific breakthrough. You see, the conclusion that the atmospheric <span class="caps">CO</span>2 increase is due to burning fossil fuels is based on isotopic data, which in turn is based on fundamental atomic and nuclear theory. So Schmitt’s conclusion overturns not only global warming science but all of atomic and nuclear theory. - <a href="http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/thegreengrok/harrisonschmitt" target="”_blank”">The Green Grok</a></blockquote>
<p>But, climate change deniers will still be able to get plenty of Marohasy’s strongly held and decidedly unscientific opinion:</p>
<blockquote>
This blog will continue to provide an opportunity for me to share ideas including with those who never agree with me, discuss radical new theories and occasionally even break news. The plot in my dystopian fiction [inspired by Ayn Rand’s ‘The Art of Ficition’] revolves around an environmental campaign that spins out of control.</blockquote>
<p>Should be the same kind of fiction Marohasy has spouted as a supposed expert.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/institute-of-public-affairs">Institute of Public Affairs</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/ipa">IPA</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/harrison-schmitt">harrison schmitt</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4366">Liberal Party</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4367">Jennifer Marohasy</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4368">John Roskam</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4369">Australian Environment Foundation</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4370">AEF</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4371">Murray-Darling River system</a></div></div></div>Sat, 11 Jul 2009 04:03:33 +0000Leslie Berliant3950 at http://www.desmogblog.comBob Carterhttp://www.desmogblog.com/bob-carter
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><h2>
<img alt="bob-carter" border="0" height="176" src="/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/bob-carter.jpg" width="118" /></h2>
<h1>
Bob Carter</h1>
<h2> Credentials</h2>
<ul><li>
Ph.D., University of Cambridge, Palaeontology, 1968.</li>
<li>
B.Sc. (Hons), University of Otago, Geology, 1963.</li>
</ul><p><strong>Source:</strong> <a href="#s1">[1]</a></p>
<h2> Background</h2>
<p>Robert (Bob) Carter is a former research professor at James Cook University, Queensland, Australia, and advisor to multiple climate science denial organisations around the world. He was head of the university's School of Earth Sciences between 1981 and 1999 and then held unpaid adjunct professorial positions. In January 2013 the university allowed his adjunct status to lapse, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/07/09/australian-university-dumps-bob-carter-advisor-multiple-global-climate-science-denial-groups" target="_blank">citing lack of input</a> into the university. He is a marine geologist and environmental scientist. <a href="#s2">[2]</a></p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/minchin-denies-climate-change-manmade/2007/03/14/1173722560417.html">response to claims</a> made by Carter that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had not uncovered evidence that global warming was caused by human activity, a former <a href="http://www.csiro.au/"><span class="caps">CSIRO</span></a> climate scientist stated that Carter was not a credible source on climate change and that “if he [Carter] has any evidence that [global warming over the past 100 years] is a natural variability he should publish through the peer review process.”</p>
<p>Carter has written numerous newspaper <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Bob_Carter#Articles_and_Presentations_by_Carter">articles</a> primarily for <span class="caps">UK</span> and Australian newspapers that attempt to disprove global warming. He has also written two books.</p>
<p>In reference to his involvement with the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Institute_of_Public_Affairs">Institute for Public Affairs (<span class="caps">IPA</span>)</a>, Carter stated in a <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/minchin-denies-climate-change-manmade/2007/03/14/1173722560417.html">March 15, 2007</a> <em>Sydney Morning Herald </em>article: “I don't think it is the point whether you are paid by the coal or petroleum industry.” <a href="#s3">[3]</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/heartland-institute-exposed-internal-documents-unmask-heart-climate-denial-machine">According to leaked documents </a>Carter receives <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/what-passes-brain-trust-heartland"><strong>$1,667 a month from the Heartland Institute</strong></a>, an organization with an intense focus on climate change skepticism. Carter was to be paid for his work as a co-author and editor on Heartland's Non Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (<span class="caps">NIPCC</span>) reports.</p>
<p>Carter was a co-editor on the 2011 “<a href="http://www.webcitation.org/6JNIBSAS2" target="_blank">Interim</a>” <span class="caps">NIPCC</span> report and is a co-editor and author of the 2013 <span class="caps">NIPCC</span> report <a href="http://www.webcitation.org/6JNINWO7L" target="_blank">Climate Change Reconsidered <span class="caps">II</span></a>, timed to coincide with the release of the United Nation's fifth major <span class="caps">IPCC</span> report on climate change.</p>
<h2>
Stance on Climate Change</h2>
<p>“There <span class="caps">IS</span> a problem with global warming… . it stopped in 1998… . That industrial carbon dioxide is not the primary cause of earth's recent decadal-scale temperature changes doesn't seem at all odd to many thousands of independent scientists. They have long appreciated - ever since the early 1990s, when the global warming bandwagon first started to roll behind the gravy train of the <span class="caps">UN</span> Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (<span class="caps">IPCC</span>) - that such short-term climate fluctuations are chiefly of natural origin.” <a href="#s4">[4]</a></p>
<h2>
Key Quotes</h2>
<blockquote>
<p>“The first thing to be clear about is that carbon dioxide is not a pollutant.” <a href="#s5">[5]</a></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>“contrary to strong public belief, the effects of increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are generally beneficial. Enhanced plant growth has many obvious benefits, amongst them increased natural vegetation growth in general, and increased agricultural production in particular. And to maintain or slightly increase planetary temperature is also very much a global good if – as Ruddiman and other scientists assert – the human production of greenhouse gases is helping to hold our planetary environment in its historic, benignly warm, interglacial mode.” <a href="#s5">[5]</a></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>“…the empirical data stressed by climate rationalists will ultimately prevail over the predictions of the unvalidated computer models. Perhaps then we will be able to attend to the real climate policy problem, which is to prepare response plans for extreme weather events, and for climate warmings as well as coolings, in the same way we prepare to cope with all other natural hazards.” <a href="#s6">[6]</a></p>
</blockquote>
<h2>
Key Deeds</h2>
<p class="title"><strong style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">July 7 - 9, 2014</strong></p>
<p>Bob Carter was a <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20140714154246/http://climateconference.heartland.org/speakers/">speaker</a> at the <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/heartland-institute">Heartland Institute</a>’s Ninth International Conference on Climate Change (<span class="caps">ICCC</span>9) in Las Vegas, Nevada. <a href="#s18">[18]</a></p>
<p>DeSmogBlog has done in-depth research on the other speakers and sponsors from Heartland's <span class="caps">ICCC</span>9, which can be found <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140714160136/http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/07/08/return-denial-palooza-heartland-institute-hitches-anti-science-wagon-freedomfest">here</a>.</p>
<p class="title"><strong style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">May 21 - 23, 2012</strong></p>
<p class="title">Bob Carter was a <a href="http://climateconference.heartland.org/speakers/" target="_blank">speaker</a> at the <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/heartland-institute">Heartland Institute</a>'s 7th International Conference on Climate Change (<span class="caps"><span class="caps"><span class="caps">ICCC</span>7</span></span>).</p>
<p>DeSmogBlog<a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/heartland-denial-palooza-sponsors-have-received-67-million-exxonmobil-koch-and-scaife-foundations"> researched the co-sponsors behind Heartland's <span class="caps"><span class="caps"><span class="caps">ICCC</span>7</span></span></a> and found that they had collectively received <strong>over $67 million</strong> from ExxonMobil, the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Koch_Brothers" target="_blank">Koch Brothers </a>and the conservative <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Scaife_Foundations" target="_blank">Scaife family foundations</a>.</p>
<p>Heartland's president <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/joseph-bast">Joe Bast</a> revealed at the end of the conference that the Institute has no plans for future <span class="caps">ICCC</span>s. This could be in part due to the defections of corporate sponsors following Heartland's <span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">the</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/heartland-institute-exposed-internal-documents-unmask-heart-climate-denial-machine" target="_blank">unintended release of their</a></span><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/heartland-institute-exposed-internal-documents-unmask-heart-climate-denial-machine" target="_blank"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></a><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/heartland-institute-exposed-internal-documents-unmask-heart-climate-denial-machine" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(255, 205, 51);">confidential documents</a> and its <span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">unsuccessful </span><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/will-heartland-institute-s-corporate-funders-tacitly-endorse-comparing-climate-realists-bin-laden-and-unabomber" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Unabomber billboard campaign</a>. <span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Carter was one of the few people to have </span><a href="http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-sceptic-ad-backfires-20120507-1y8ef.html" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;" target="_blank">subsequently backed</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> Heartland's decision to run the billboard campaign.</span></p>
<p><strong>June 30, 2011</strong></p>
<p>Carter was a speaker at the Heartland Institute's <a href="http://desmogblog.com/denial-a-palooza-round-6">6th International Conference on Climate Change</a>. <a href="#s2">[2]</a></p>
<p><strong>March 30, 2009</strong></p>
<p>Carter's signature <a href="http://www.cato.org/special/climatechange/alternate_version.html">appears on a full-page ad </a>funded by the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Cato_Institute"><span class="caps">CATO</span> institute</a> that <a href="http://planetsave.com/2009/04/06/cato-institute-ad-calls-climate-change-grossly-overstated/">appeared</a> in numerous newspapers including the <em>Washington Post</em>, the <em>New York Times</em> and the <em>Chicago Tribune</em> in 2009.</p>
<p>The advertisement objects to President Obama's declaration that “few challenges facing America and the world are more urgent than combating climate change” and claims that “there has been no net global warming for over a decade” and that the dangers of global warming are “grossly overstated.” <a href="#s7">[7]</a></p>
<p><strong>March, 2009 </strong></p>
<p>Carter was a <a href="https://www.quadrant.org.au/blogs/doomed-planet/2009/03/heartland-2-session-three">speaker</a> at the 2009 International Conference on climate Change. <a href="#s8">[8]</a></p>
<p>The conference was hosted by the industry-funded <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute">Heartland Institute</a> and focuses on “research that contradicts claims that Earth’s moderate warming during the twentieth century primarily was man-made and has reached crisis proportions.”</p>
<p><strong>March 8, 2007</strong></p>
<p>Carter was <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/tv/swindle/panel.htm">listed</a> on the “panel” for <em>The Great Global Warming Swindle</em> as a climate change skeptic.</p>
<p>In an <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/counterpoint/stories/s1339366.htm">interview</a> with <span class="caps">ABC</span>, Carter describes how “increasing [carbon dioxide] in the atmosphere is actually a benefit to human kind.” <a href="#s9">[9]</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=The_Great_Global_Warming_Swindle"><em>The Great Global Warming Swindle</em></a> received critical response from the scientific community, including a <a href="http://climateofdenial.net/?q=node/1">letter</a> to <span class="caps">ABC</span> that was signed by thirty-seven British Scientists who claimed “the misrepresentations of facts and views, both of which occur in your programme, are so serious that repeat broadcasts of the programme, without amendment, are not in the public interest. In view of the seriousness of climate change as an issue, it is crucial that public debate about it is balanced and well-informed.” <a href="#s10">[10]</a></p>
<p>In an <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/abc-australias-tony-jones-and-durkin-transcript">interview</a> between <span class="caps">ABC</span> Australia’s Tony Jones and the film’s director Martin Durkin, <em> The Great Global Warming Swindle’s </em>validity and scientific accuracy were also put into question. </p>
<p><strong>Feb 5, 2007</strong></p>
<p>Carter is listed as a “<a href="http://www.uoguelph.ca/%7Ermckitri/research/ispm.html">expert reviewer”</a> of the <a href="http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Independent_Summary_for_Policymakers">Independent Summary for Policymakers (<span class="caps">ISPM</span>)</a>, essentially a critical review of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (<span class="caps">IPCC</span>) <a href="http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/syr/en/contents.html">Fourth Assessment Report</a>. <a href="#s11">[11]</a></p>
<p>The <span class="caps">ISPM</span> is published by the industry-supported <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Fraser_Institute">Fraser Institute</a> which received over $60,000 from ExxonMobil and which is also financially-supported by several tobacco companies including Philip Morris and British American Tobacco.</p>
<h2> Affiliations</h2>
<ul><li>
<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Institute_of_Public_Affairs"><strong>The Institute for Public Affairs</strong> <strong>(<span class="caps">IPA</span>)</strong></a> — Emeritus Fellow, Science Policy Advisor. <a href="#s12">[12]</a></li>
</ul><ul><li>
<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Tech_Central_Station"><strong>Tech Central Station</strong></a> — Contributor. <a href="#s5">[5]</a></li>
</ul><ul><li>
<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Australian_Environment_Foundation"><strong>Australian Environment Foundation </strong></a>— Founding Member and <a href="http://www.webcitation.org/6JLcflqBU" target="_blank">director</a>. <a href="#s13">[13]</a></li>
</ul><ul><li>
<a href="http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ICECAP"><strong><span class="caps">ICECAP</span> </strong></a>— “<a href="http://icecap.us/index.php/go/experts">Expert</a>.”<a href="#s14"> [14]</a></li>
</ul><ul><li>
<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute"><strong>Heartland Institute</strong></a> — “<a href="http://heartland.org/robert-m-carter">Expert</a>.” <a href="#s15">[15]</a></li>
<li>
Global Warming Policy Foundation - <a href="http://www.webcitation.org/6JLbsqtY0" target="_blank">Academic Advisory Council</a> member.</li>
<li>
International Climate Science Coalition - <a href="http://www.webcitation.org/6JLbcIelW" target="_blank">Chief Science Advisor</a>.</li>
<li>
Galileo Movement - <a href="http://www.webcitation.org/6JLcpiiCZ" target="_blank">adviser</a>.</li>
<li>
Science and Public Policy Institute - <a href="http://www.webcitation.org/6JLdCz9kE" target="_blank">adviser</a>.</li>
<li>
Repeal the Act - <a href="http://www.webcitation.org/6JLdLW0vD" target="_blank">patron</a>.</li>
<li>
European Institute for Climate and Energy - <a href="http://www.webcitation.org/6JLdVneo2" target="_blank">Advisory Board member</a>.</li>
<li>
Australian Climate Science Coalition - <a href="http://www.webcitation.org/6JLdlCcp5" target="_blank">Scientific Advisory Panel member</a>.</li>
<li>
New Zealand Climate Science Coalition - <a href="http://www.webcitation.org/6JLdunXQu" target="_blank">founder</a>.</li>
</ul><h2> Publications</h2>
<p>According to a search of 22,000 academic journals, Carter has published over 50 original research in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer_review">peer-reviewed</a> journals mainly in the area of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratigraphy">stratigraphy</a>, the study of rock layers and layering. <span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Carter's articles on global warming have largely appeared in economics journals, rather than mainstream science journals. </span></p>
<p>Carter has written many opinion columns on climate change, with several published in the Rupert Murdoch-owned <em>The Australian</em> newspaper and minor Australian publication <em>Quadrant</em>. He has written two books sceptical of the science of human-caused global warming.</p>
<p>The first, <em>Climate: The Counter Consensus</em>, was published in July 2010. Reviewing the book, Australian climate scientist David Karoly said Dr Carter lived in a world where “<a href="http://theconversation.com/bob-carters-climate-counter-consensus-is-an-alternate-reality-1553" target="_blank">it is <span class="caps">OK</span> to select any evidence that supports your ideas and ignore all other evidence</a>”. Leading New Zealand climate scientist Dr James Renwick said the book was “<a href="http://sciblogs.co.nz/hot-topic/2011/04/29/climate-the-counter-consensus/" target="_blank">a curious read, full of misinformation, straw-man arguments, and poorly-documented assertions</a>.”</p>
<p>His second book, <em>Taxing Air: Facts <span class="amp">&amp;</span> Falacies About Climate Change</em>, was released in May 2013 and was co-written with cartoonist John Spooner and fellow sceptics <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/william-kininmonth" target="_blank">Bill Kininmonth</a>, Martin Feil, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/stewart-franks" target="_blank">Stewart Franks</a> and Bryan Leyland. The Institute of Public Affairs <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/07/09/australian-university-dumps-bob-carter-advisor-multiple-global-climate-science-denial-groups" target="_blank">sent copies of the book</a> to Australian Members of Parliament and <a href="http://www.ipa.org.au/events/information/event/book-launch-of-taxing-air-facts-fallacies-about-climate-change-by-bob-carter" target="_blank">hosted a launch event</a>. Australian mathematical physicist Ian Enting, author of the Australian Mathematical Scences Institute book <em><a href="http://www.amsi.org.au/publications/amsi-publications/63-twisted-the-distorted-maths-of-greenhouse-denial" target="_blank">Twisted: The distorted mathematics of greenhouse denial</a>, </em>has <a href="http://skepticalscience.com/docs/Comments_Taxing_Air.pdf" target="_blank">analysed the book</a>, describing it as being characterised by “half-truths and slanted misrepresentation” and “appalling hypocrisy”.</p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">A list of Carter's publications is </span><a href="http://www.webcitation.org/6JLe71V2h" style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;" target="_blank">available on his website</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">. </span></p>
<p><strong>Sample Articles:</strong></p>
<ul><li>
<span class="caps">R.M.</span> Carter. “<a href="http://www.eap-journal.com/index.html">Knock, knock: where is the evidence for dangerous human-caused global warming?</a>” <em>Economic Analysis <span class="amp">&amp;</span> Policy</em> (Journal of the Economic Society of Australia - Queensland), 32(2) (2008), 107-202. </li>
</ul><ul><li>
<span class="caps">R.M.</span> Carter, <span class="caps">C.R.</span> De Freitas, <span class="caps">I.M.</span> Goklany, D. Holland, and <span class="caps">R.S.</span> Lindzen. “Climate science and the Stern Review,” (<a href="http://members.iinet.net.au/~glrmc/WE%20Riposte%20to%20Critique.pdf"><span class="caps">PDF</span></a>) <em>World Economics</em>, 8 (2007), 161-182.</li>
</ul><ul><li>
D. Holland, <span class="caps">R.M.</span> Carter, <span class="caps">C.R.</span> De Freitas, <span class="caps">I.M.</span> Goklany, and <span class="caps">R.S.</span> Lindzen. “<a href="http://members.iinet.net.au/~glrmc/WE%20Riposte%20to%20Simmonds%20Critique.pdf">Climate change. Response to Simmonds and Steffen</a>,” (<span class="caps">PDF</span>), <em>World Economics</em>, 8 (2007), 143-151.</li>
</ul><h2> Resources</h2>
<ol><li>
<p><a name="s1" id="s1"></a>“<a href="http://myprofile.cos.com/glrmc">Profile: Robert M. Carter</a>,” accessed November 30, 2011.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s2" id="s2"></a>“<a href="http://climateconference.heartland.org/robert-%E2%80%9Cbob%E2%80%9D-carter/">Robert 'Bob' Carter: 6th International Conference on Climate Change</a>,” the Heartland Institute.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s3" id="s3"></a>Wendy Frew. “<a href="http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/minchin-denies-climate-change-manmade/2007/03/14/1173722560417.html">Minchin denies climate change man-made</a>,” <em>The Sydney Morning Herald</em>, March 15, 2007. <a href="http://www.webcitation.org/65qk5xPYJ">Archived March 1, 2012</a> with WebCite.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s4" id="s4"></a>Bob Carter. “<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3624242/There-IS-a-problem-with-global-warming...-it-stopped-in-1998.html">There <span class="caps">IS</span> a problem with global warming… it stopped in 1998</a>,” <em>The Telegraph</em>, April 9, 2006.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s5" id="s5"></a>“<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090204183610/http://www.techcentralstation.com/050504A.html" target="_blank">Clearing the Air</a>,” <em><span class="caps"><span class="caps">TCS</span></span> Daily</em>, May 5, 2004. Archived May 14, 2007.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s6" id="s6"></a>“<a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/bob-carter-british-report-the-last-hurrah-of-warmaholics/story-e6frg6zo-1111112460532">Bob Carter: British report the last hurrah of warmaholics</a>,” <em>The Australian</em>, November 3, 2006.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s7" id="s7"></a>“<a href="http://www.cato.org/special/climatechange/">Climate Change Reality</a>,” The Cato Institute.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s8" id="s8"></a>“<a href="https://www.quadrant.org.au/blogs/doomed-planet/2009/03/heartland-2-session-three">Heartland-2 session three</a>,” <em>Quadrant Online</em>, March 11, 2009.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s9" id="s9"></a>“<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060117090621/http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/counterpoint/stories/s1339366.htm">Climate Change Response</a>” (Transcript), <em><span class="caps">ABC</span></em>, April 11, 2005. Archived January 17, 2006.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s10" id="s10"></a>“<a href="http://climateofdenial.net/?q=node/1">The Great Global Warming Swindle: open letter to Martin Durkin from 37 signatories (April 2007)</a>,” <em>Climate of Denial</em>, April 24, 2007.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s11" id="s11"></a>“<a href="http://www.uoguelph.ca/~rmckitri/research/ispm.html">Independent Summary for Policymakers of the <span class="caps">IPCC</span> Fourth Assessment Report (Working Group I)</a>,” Retrieved from Ross Mckitrick's homepage at the University of Guelph, March 1, 2012.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s12" id="s12"></a>“<a href="http://www.ipa.org.au/people/bob-carter">People <span class="amp">&amp;</span> Associates: Bob Carter</a>,” Institute of Public Affairs. Accessed November 30, 2011.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s13" id="s13"></a>“<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Bob_Carter">Bob Carter</a>,” SourceWatch Profile.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s14" id="s14"></a>“<a href="http://icecap.us/index.php/go/experts">Experts</a>,” <span class="caps">ICECAP</span>. Accessed January, 2012.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s15" id="s15"></a>“<a href="http://heartland.org/robert-m-carter">Experts: Robert M. Carter</a>,” The Heartland Institute. Accessed May, 2012.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/personfactsheet.php?id=1134">ExxonSecrets Factsheet: Bob Carter.</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>“<a href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/wiki/index.php/Deniers:Scientists:Bob_Carter">Deniers:Scientists:Bob Carter</a>,” ExxonSecrets Wiki.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s18" id="s18"></a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">“<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140714160136/http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/07/08/return-denial-palooza-heartland-institute-hitches-anti-science-wagon-freedomfest" target="_blank">Return of Climate Denial-a-Palooza: Heartland Institute Hitches Anti-Science Wagon to Vegas FreedomFest</a>,” </span><em style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">DeSmogBlog</em><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">, July 7, 2014. Archived July 14, 2014.</span></p>
</li>
</ol></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/institute-of-public-affairs">Institute of Public Affairs</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/598">tech central station</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/622">bob carter</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/913">global warming</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/939">climate change</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1131">rm bob carter</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1132">james cook university</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2540">desmogblog</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2560">global warming blog</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2654">denial industry</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/3068">climate change denier</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4046">global warming research</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4047">climate misinformation</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5721">smogger</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6886">climate change skeptic</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7705">climate denialism</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7706">denial database</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-13 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Organizations:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/1682">Institute Of Public Affairs</a></div></div></div>Wed, 21 Mar 2007 17:09:33 +0000Kevin Grandia1557 at http://www.desmogblog.comIan Plimerhttp://www.desmogblog.com/ian-plimer
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><h2>
<img alt="ian-plimer" border="0" height="128" src="/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/ian-plimer.gif" width="114" /></h2>
<h1>
Ian Plimer</h1>
<h2> Credentials</h2>
<ul><li>
Ph.D. Macquarie University (specializing in “tungsten-molybdenum-bismuth deposits”). <a href="#s1">[1]</a></li>
<li>
B.Sc.(Hons) University of New South Wales.</li>
</ul><p><strong>Source:</strong> <a href="#s2">[2]</a></p>
<h2> Background</h2>
<p>Ian Plimer is a<a href="http://www.adelaide.edu.au/directory/ian.plimer"> professor of Mining Geology</a> at the University of Adelaide, South Australia, and Emeritus Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne.</p>
<p>Plimer has two climate science denial books. The first, which has been referred to as the “denier's bible,” was <em>Heaven and Earth. </em>The second, published in late 2011, was called<em> </em><em>How To Get Expelled From School: A guide to climate change for pupils, parents and punters</em>.</p>
<p>Plimer has been a director of numerous mining companies including Ivanhoe Australia, a subsidiary of Bob Friedland's Ivanhoe Mines, <span class="caps">CBH</span> Resources, Kefi Minerals, Silver City Minerals, Ormil Energy Ltd, <span class="caps">TNT</span> Mines, Niuminco Group and Lakes Oil.</p>
<p>Plimer was <a href="http://www.perthnow.com.au/business/local-business/rinehart-appoints-plimer-to-board-roles/story-e6frg2s3-1226259721980">appointed</a> to the boards of Roy Hill Holdings and Queensland Coal Investments by mining magnate and climate skeptic promoter <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Gina_Rinehart">Gina Rinehart</a> on January 25, 2012. <a href="#s3">[3] </a></p>
<p>As non-executive Director and Deputy Chairman of Kefi, he owns 3.6 million shares which would be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in today's market. </p>
<p>In an article titled “Why I'd put global warming on ice,” Plimer claims that his commercial interest in mining “does not colour his arguments, which he says are based on pure science” and “does not affect the independence of his beliefs.”<a href="#s4"> [4]</a></p>
<h2>
Stance on Climate Change</h2>
<p>According to a presentation by Plimer with the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Friends_of_Science">Friends of Science</a>:<a href="#s5"> [5]</a></p>
<p class="rteindent1">”- [The] Earth['s climate] always changes<br />
- Climate change is normal<br />
- Climate change occurred well before humans were on Earth<br />
- The rate of climate change today is no different from thousands, millions or billions of years ago<br />
- &gt;80% [of the] time, Earth has been warmer and wetter than at present<br />
- Ice is rare<br />
- Just because [climate] change occurs in our lifetime does not mean that we humans are driving the change”</p>
<h2>
Key Quotes</h2>
<blockquote>
<p>“Climate has always changed. It always has and always will. Sea level has always changed. Ice sheets come and go. Life always changes. Extinctions of life are normal. Planet Earth is dynamic and evolving. Climate changes are cyclical and random. Through the eyes of a geologist, I would be really concerned if there were no change to Earth over time. In the light of large rapid natural climate changes, just how much do humans really change climate?”<br /><br />
“There is no problem with global warming. It stopped in 1998. The last two years of global cooling have erased nearly thirty years of temperature increase.” <a href="#s6">[6]</a></p>
</blockquote>
<h2>
Key Deeds</h2>
<p><strong>May 30, 2014</strong></p>
<p>Plimer publishes, “<a href="http://www.webcitation.org/6PQGI4NDY" target="_blank">Not For Greens: He who sups with the Devil should have a long spoon</a>,” through Connor Court Publishing. A summary on the publisher's website, describes the book as follows:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">“The processes required to make a humble stainless steel teaspoon are remarkably complicated and every stage involves risk, coal, energy, capital, international trade and finance. Stainless steel cutlery has taken thousands of years of experimentation and knowledge to evolve and the end result is that we can eat without killing ourselves with bacteria. We are in the best times to have ever lived on planet Earth and the future will only be better. All this we take for granted.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Greens may have started as genuine environmentalists. Much of the green movement has now morphed into an unelected extremist political pressure group accountable to no one. Greens create problems, many of which are concocted, and provide no solutions because of a lack of basic knowledge. This book examines green policies in the light of established knowledge and shows that they are unrealistic.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Policies by greens adopted by supine governments have resulted in rising costs, increased taxes, political instability, energy poverty, decreased longevity and environmental degradation and they don’t achieve their ideological aims. Wind, solar and biomass energy emit more carbon dioxide than they save and reduction of carbon dioxide emissions does nothing to change climate and only empties the pocket. No stainless steel teaspoon could be made using green “alternative energy”.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">This book argues that unless the greens live sustainably in caves in the forest and use no trappings of the modern world, then they should be regarded as hypocrites and treated with the disdain they deserve.” <a href="#s38">[38]</a></p>
<p><strong>December 12, 2011</strong><br /><br />
Plimer published the “anti-warmist manual,” <a href="http://www.abbeys.com.au/book/how-to-get-expelled-from-school-a-guide-to-climate-change-for-pupils-parents-and-punters.do"><em>How to Get Expelled From School: A guide to climate change for pupils, parents and punters</em></a>, which was reviewed by numerous sources and found to be scientifically inaccurate, containing flawed or undocumented diagrams, and sloppily edited.<a href="#s7"> [7]</a>, <a href="#s8">[8]</a>, <a href="#s9">[9]</a></p>
<p>The book has been <a href="http://www.news.com.au/national/climate-sceptic-targets-teachers/story-e6frfkw0-1226220417543">billed</a> as the “anti-warmist manual for the younger reader”<a href="#s10"> [10]</a> and was launched by free-market think tank <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/tags/institute-of-public-affairs" target="_blank">Institute of Public Affairs</a>. Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard launched the book in Sydney.</p>
<p>The Australian Government responded with<a href="http://www.climatechange.gov.au/en/climate-change/understanding-climate-change/~/media/climate-change/prof-plimer-101-questions-response-pdf.pdf"> “Accurate Answers to Professor Plimer’s 101 Climate Change Science Questions” (<span class="caps">PDF</span>)</a>, saying the questions posed in Plimer's book are “misleading and are based on inaccurate or selective interpretation of the science.”</p>
<p>The Government report was created to “provide clear and accurate answers to Professor Plimer's questions. The answers are based on up-to-date peer reviewed science, and have been reviewed by a number of Australian climate scientists.” <a href="#s11">[11]</a></p>
<p><strong>July 2011</strong></p>
<p>Plimer spoke at a private luncheon hosted by billionnaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart. <a href="http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/07/29/sceptics-on-the-menu-at-rineharts-big-luncheon-bash/" target="_blank">Crikey reported</a> that in the audience were several high-powered politicians and diplomats, including Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett, the state's environment minister Bill Marmion, former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Chinese Ambassador Chen Yuming. Rinehart described Plimer as “one of the leading sources of reasoned and factual information in Australia on global warming and climate change”.</p>
<p><strong>May, 2010</strong></p>
<p>Plimer was a speaker at the Heartland Institute's 2010 International Conference on Climate Change. <a href="#s12">[12]</a></p>
<p>DeSmogBlog found that the sponsors for Heartland's 2009 International Conference on Climate Change had collectively received over <a href="../../heartland-institutes-2009-climate-conference-new-york-funding-history-sponsors">$47 million</a> from oil companies and right-wing foundations.</p>
<p><strong>2009</strong></p>
<p>Plimer Published <em>Heaven and Earth</em> in 2009. The book asserts that the temperature changes we have observed in the 20th century are within the “normal range of variability,” that significant global warming is not happening and that there is negligible human impact on warming.</p>
<p>His book was received critically, having been <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2009/04/the_science_is_missing_from_ia.php">debunked</a> numerous times by scientists. <a href="#s13">[13]</a>, <a href="#s14">[14]</a></p>
<p>Some critics have even <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2009/10/plimer_the_plagiarist.php">accused Plimer of plagiarism</a>.<a href="#s15"> [15]</a></p>
<p>In his review of Heaven and Earth for <em>The Australian</em>, astronomer <a href="http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~mcba/">Michael Ashley</a> wrote: <a href="#s16">[16]</a></p>
<p class="rteindent1">“Plimer probably didn't expect an astronomer to review his book. I couldn't help noticing on page 120 an almost word-for-word reproduction of the abstract from a well-known loony paper…[that] argues that the sun isn't composed of 98 per cent hydrogen and helium, as astronomers have confirmed through a century of observation and theory, but is instead similar in composition to a meteorite.<br /><br />
“It is hard to understate the depth of scientific ignorance that the inclusion of this information demonstrates. It is comparable to a biologist claiming that plants obtain energy from magnetism rather than photosynthesis.”</p>
<p><span style="font-style: italic;">T</span><em>he Guardian</em>'s George Monbiot criticized Plimer's book, saying “Since its publication in Australia it has been ridiculed for a hilarious series of schoolboy errors, and its fudging and manipulation of the data.” Plimer responded by challenging Monbiot to a public debate. <a href="#s17">[17]</a><br /><br />
Monbiot then challenged Plimer to give a set of “precise and specific responses” to his critics' points. Plimer rejected this challenge.<a href="#s18"> [18] </a></p>
<p>Monbiot called Plimer “a grandstander, who wants nothing more than to make as much noise as possible in the hope that it will drown out the precise refutations published by his book's reviewers.” Plimer subsequently reversed his earlier refusal, saying he would answer the questions in return for a live debate. <a href="#s19">[19]</a></p>
<p>Instead of answering the questions that Monbiot posed, Plimer responded with his own set of questions. No official debate was actually held.<a href="#s20"> [20] </a><br /><br />
The two did debate, however, on <span class="caps">ABC</span>'s Lateline in December, 2009. Monbiot concluded that Plimer had “used evasion and distraction when faced with straight questions,” and that the overall view was that “Plimer had been soundly thrashed.”<a href="#s21"> [21]</a></p>
<p><strong>December, 2009</strong><br /><br />
During the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 (<span class="caps">COP</span>15), Plimer spoke at a rival conference in Copenhagen called the Copenhagen Climate Challenge, which was organized by the climate change skeptic group <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Committee_for_a_Constructive_Tomorrow">Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (<span class="caps">CFACT</span>)</a>. <a href="#s22">[22]</a></p>
<p>Among Plimer's arguments at the conference is how carbon dioxide is “not a pollutant, it is plant food.” See footage of Plimer <a href="http://blogs.crikey.com.au/rooted/2009/12/10/climate-change-skeptics-stage-rebel-copenhagen-conference/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CrikeyBlogs+%28Crikey+Blogs%29">here</a>. <a href="#s23">[23]</a></p>
<p>While the <span class="caps">UN</span>'s conference attracted 33,200, the skeptics attracted only 60 people. “They’ve got us outnumbered, but we've got them outgunned, and that’s with the truth,” Plimer said at the conclusion.</p>
<h2> Affiliations</h2>
<ul><li>
<p><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Natural_Resources_Stewardship_Project"><strong>Natural Resources Stewardship Project (<span class="caps">NRSP</span>) </strong></a>— Past “Allied Expert.” The <span class="caps">NRSP</span> is now defunct. <a href="#s24">[24]</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Institute_of_Public_Affairs"><strong>Institute of Public Affairs (<span class="caps">IPA</span>) </strong></a>— Former “Associate.” <a href="#s25">[25]</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Global_Warming_Policy_Foundation"><strong>Global Warming Policy Foundation (<span class="caps">GWPF</span>) </strong></a>— Member, ”<a href="http://www.thegwpf.org/who-we-are/academic-advisory-council.html?start=10">Academic Advisory Council</a>.” <a href="#s26">[26]</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute"><strong>The Heartland Institute </strong></a>— “<a href="http://heartland.org/ian-plimer">Expert.</a>” <a href="#s27">[27]</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Australian_Climate_Science_Coalition"><strong>Australian Climate Science Coalition (<span class="caps">ACSC</span>)</strong></a> — Member, “<a href="http://www.auscsc.org.au/about_us.html">Scientific Advisory Panel</a>.” <a href="#s28">[28]</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Roy Hill Holdings</strong> — Director, <a href="http://www.perthnow.com.au/business/local-business/rinehart-appoints-plimer-to-board-roles/story-e6frg2s3-1226259721980">appointed in January, 2012</a>. <a href="#s3">[3]</a>, <a href="#s29">[29]</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Queensland Coal Investments</strong> — Director, <a href="http://www.perthnow.com.au/business/local-business/rinehart-appoints-plimer-to-board-roles/story-e6frg2s3-1226259721980">appointed in January, 2012</a>. <a href="#s3">[3]</a>, <a href="#s29">[29]</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Ivanhoe Australia </strong>— <a href="http://www.ivanhoeaustralia.com/s/Board_of_Directors.asp">Director</a> (since 2007). <a href="#s30">[30]</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Silver City Minerals Limited</strong> — Non-executive director. <a href="#s31">[31]</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong><span class="caps">CBH</span> Resources Ltd </strong>—<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090301180427/http://www.cbhresources.com.au/company-profile/company-directors.htm"> Director</a>, 1998 - 2010. <a href="#s32">[32]</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Ormil Energy Ltd</strong> — Non-Executive Director. Also holds 2,500,000 opions and indirectly holds 2,000,000 shares. <a href="#s33">[33]</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Kefi Minerals</strong> — Non-Executive Deputy Chairman. <a href="#s34">[34]</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong><span class="caps">TNT</span> Mines Ltd</strong> — Chairman, Board of Directors. <a href="#s1">[1]</a></p>
</li>
</ul><h2> Publications</h2>
<p>According to a search of 22,000 academic journals, Plimer has published more than 40 research articles in peer-reviewed journals, mainly on the subject of ore deposits.</p>
<h2> Resources</h2>
<ol><li>
<p><a name="s1" id="s1"></a>“<a href="http://www.tntmines.com.au/corporate-directors.php">Board of Directors</a>,” <span class="caps">TNT</span> Mines Limited. Accessed January, 2012.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s2" id="s2"></a>“<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090709075523/http://www.ecms.adelaide.edu.au/civeng/staff/iplimer01.html">Ian Plimer</a>,” Profile at the School of Civil, Environmental <span class="amp">&amp;</span> Mining Engineering at the University of Adelaide. Archived July 9, 2009.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s3" id="s3"></a>Andrew Burrell. “<a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/carbon-plan/gina-brings-climate-sceptic-on-board/story-fn99tjf2-1226260017472">Gina brings climate sceptic on board</a>,”<em> The Australian</em>, February 2, 2012.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s4" id="s4"></a>Penelope Debelle. “<a href="http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/why-id-put-global-warming-on-ice/story-e6frebt3-1225718191684">Why I'd put global warming on ice</a>,” <em>The Advertiser</em>, May 28, 2009.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s5" id="s5"></a>Ian Plimer. “Human-induced global warming: Why I am sceptical” (<a href="http://friendsofginandtonic.org/assets/Plimer%2020110516.pdf"><span class="caps">PDF</span></a>), Friends of Science, Calgary, May 16, 2011. Retreived February 2, 2012, from friendsofginandtonic.org.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s6" id="s6"></a>“<a href="http://www.ipa.org.au/publications/1709/the-natural-history-of-climate-change">The natural history of climate change</a>,” <span class="caps">IPA</span> Review Article. Accessed February 2, 2012.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s7" id="s7"></a>“<a href="http://www.aussmc.org/2011/12/rapid-reaction-ian-plimer-launches-new-book-on-climate-change-%E2%80%93-experts-respond/"><span class="caps">RAPID</span> <span class="caps">REACTION</span>: Ian Plimer launches new book on climate change – experts respond</a>,” <em>The Australian Science Media Center</em>, December 9, 2011.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s8" id="s8"></a>Lexi Metherell. “<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-13/howard-lends-support-to-anti-climate-change-book/3727650">Howard launches 'anti-warmist manual' for kids</a>,” <em><span class="caps">ABC</span> News</em>, December 13, 2011.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s9" id="s9"></a><span class="caps">I.G.</span> Enting. “Comments on 'How to Get Expelled from School' by Ian Plimer” (<a href="http://www.aussmc.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/plimer-book-comment-ian-enting.pdf"><span class="caps">PDF</span></a>). Retrieved February, 2012, from the Australian Science Media Centre.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s10" id="s10"></a>Clare Peddie. “<a href="http://www.news.com.au/national/climate-sceptic-targets-teachers/story-e6frfkw0-1226220417543#ixzz1ulhDAQAO">'How to get expelled': Climate sceptic recruits kids</a>,” news.com.au, December 13, 2011.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s11" id="s11"></a><a href="http://www.climatechange.gov.au/sites/climatechange/files/documents/03_2013/prof-plimer-answers.pdf">“Accurate Answers to Professor Plimer's 101 Climate Change Science Questions,” (<span class="caps">PDF</span>)</a>, Australian Government Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s12" id="s12"></a>“4th International Conference on Climate Change” (<a href="http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/LGOULD/Heartland%20Fourth%20International%20Conf_FullConferenceProgram.pdf"><span class="caps">PDF</span></a>), The Heartland Institute. Retrieved February 2, 2012, from University of Hartford web server.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s13" id="s13"></a>“<a href="http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2009/04/the_science_is_missing_from_ia.php">The science is missing from Ian Plimer's 'Heaven and Earth'</a>,” <em>Deltoid</em>, April 23, 2009.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s14" id="s14"></a>John Cook. “<a href="http://skepticalscience.com/Plimer-vs-Plimer-one-man-contradiction.html">Plimer vs Plimer: a one man contradiction</a>,” <em>Skeptical Science</em>, December 9, 2011.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s15" id="s15"></a>Tim Lambert. “<a href="http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2009/10/plimer_the_plagiarist.php">Plimer the plagiarist</a>,” <em>Deltoid</em>, October 25, 2009.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s16" id="s16"></a>Michael Ashely. “<a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/ian-plimer-heaven-and-earth/story-e6frg8no-1225710387147">No science in Plimer's primer</a>,” <em>The Australian</em>, May 9, 2009.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s17" id="s17"></a>George Monbiot. “<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2009/jul/09/george-monbiot-ian-plimer">Spectator recycles climate rubbish published by sceptic</a>,” <em>The Guardian</em>, July 5, 2009.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s18" id="s18"></a>George Monbiot. “<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2009/aug/05/climate-change-scepticism">Let battle commence! Climate change denialist ready for the fight</a>,” <em>The Guardian</em>, August 6, 2009.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s19" id="s19"></a>George Monbiot. “<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2009/aug/03/ian-plimer-climate-change-denial">Why can't the champion of climate change denial face the music?</a>,” <em>The Guardian</em>, August 3, 2009.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s20" id="s20"></a>George Monbiot. “<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2009/aug/12/climate-change-climate-change-scepticism">Plimer resorts to attack as the best form of defence</a>,” <em>The Guardian</em>, August 12, 2009.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s21" id="s21"></a>George Monbiot. “<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2009/dec/16/ian-plimer-versus-george-monbiot">Ian Plimer's volcano claims vaporise under questioning on Australian <span class="caps">TV</span></a>,” <em>The Guardian</em>, December, 2009.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s22" id="s22"></a>Giles Parkinson. “<a href="http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/COPENHAGEN-CALLING-Bolstering-Barack-pd20091209-YJR3A?OpenDocument&amp;src=sph"><span class="caps">COPENHAGEN</span> <span class="caps">CALLING</span>: Bolstering Barack</a>,” <em>Business Spectator</em>, December 9, 2009.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s23" id="s23"></a>Matthew Knott. “<a href="http://blogs.crikey.com.au/rooted/2009/12/10/climate-change-skeptics-stage-rebel-copenhagen-conference/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CrikeyBlogs+%28Crikey+Blogs%29">Climate Change skeptics stage rebel Copenhagen conference</a>,” <em>Crikey</em>, December 10, 2009.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s24" id="s24"></a>“<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070206072147/http://www.nrsp.com/people.html"><span class="caps">NRSP</span> People</a>,” The Natural Resources Stewardship Project. Archived February 6, 2007.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s25" id="s25"></a>“<a href="http://ipa.org.au/people/ian-plimer">People <span class="amp">&amp;</span> associates</a>,” Institute of Public Affairs. Accessed January, 2012. Archived by WebCite® at &lt;<a href="http://www.webcitation.org/658snItLT">http://www.webcitation.org/658snItLT</a>&gt;.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s26" id="s26"></a>“<a href="http://www.thegwpf.org/who-we-are/academic-advisory-council.html?start=10">Academic Advisory Council</a>,” The Gobal Warming Policy Foundation. Accessed January, 2012. Archived by WebCite® at &lt;<a href="http://www.webcitation.org/658vkk8Y4">http://www.webcitation.org/658vkk8Y4</a>&gt;.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s27" id="s27"></a>“<a href="http://heartland.org/ian-plimer">Heartland Experts: Ian Plimer</a>,” Accessed January, 2012. Archived by WebCite® at &lt;<a href="http://www.webcitation.org/658wnGs7A">http://www.webcitation.org/658wnGs7A</a>&gt;.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s28" id="s28"></a>“<a href="http://www.auscsc.org.au/about_us.html">About Us</a>,” Australian Climate Science Coalition. Accessed February, 2012.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s29" id="s29"></a>Nick Evans. “<a href="http://www.perthnow.com.au/business/local-business/rinehart-appoints-plimer-to-board-roles/story-e6frg2s3-1226259721980">Gina Rinehart appoints Prof Ian Plimer to two boards</a>,” <em>PerthNow</em>, February 1, 2012.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s30" id="s30"></a>“<a href="http://www.ivanhoeaustralia.com/s/Board_of_Directors.asp">Board of Directors</a>,” Ivanhoe Australia. Accessed January, 2012.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s31" id="s31"></a>“Mines and Money London: Australia Day Presentation” (<a href="http://www.minesandmoney.com/london/pdf/presentations/2011/australia-day/16%20-%20Silver%20City%20mines%20&amp;%20money%20v2.pdf"><span class="caps">PDF</span></a>), Mining Journal Investor Seminars, December 5, 2011.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s32" id="s32"></a>“<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090301180427/http://www.cbhresources.com.au/company-profile/company-directors.htm">Company Directors</a>,” <span class="caps">CBH</span> Resources Limited. Archived March 1, 2009.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s33" id="s33"></a>“<a href="http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Ormil-Energy-director-takes-up-rights-AV77N?OpenDocument">Ormil Energy director takes up rights</a>,” <em>Business Spectator</em>, November 4, 2010.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s34" id="s34"></a>“<a href="http://www.kefi-minerals.com/board.html">Board of Directors</a>,” Kefi Minerals. Accessed January, 2012.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>“<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Plimer">Ian Plimer</a>,” Wikipedia Entry.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>“<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ian_Plimer">Ian Plimer</a>,” SourceWatch Profile.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/personfactsheet.php?id=1314">ExxonSecrets Factsheet: Ian Plimer</a>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="s38" id="s38"></a>“<a href="http://www.webcitation.org/6PQGI4NDY" target="_blank">Not for Greens: He who sups with the Devil should have a long spoon</a>,” Ian Plimer, <em>Connor Court Publishing</em>, May 30, 2014. Archived May 8, 2014.</p>
</li>
</ol></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-13 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Organizations:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/1682">Institute Of Public Affairs</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/1624">Nrsp</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/institute-of-public-affairs">Institute of Public Affairs</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/nrsp">NRSP</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/654">Natural Resources Stewardship Project</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/837">timothy f ball</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/838">tom harris</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/913">global warming</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/939">climate change</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/965">ian plimer</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2540">desmogblog</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2560">global warming blog</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2654">denial industry</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/3068">climate change denier</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4046">global warming research</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4047">climate misinformation</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5721">smogger</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6886">climate change skeptic</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7705">climate denialism</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7706">denial database</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/8319">sustainability projecttim ball</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-5 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">People:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/people/tim-ball">Tim Ball</a></div></div></div>Tue, 27 Feb 2007 01:12:07 +0000Kevin Grandia1398 at http://www.desmogblog.comInhofe's last standhttp://www.desmogblog.com/inhofes-last-stand-0
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/images/blog-feature-1061.jpg?itok=cqmnoTwF" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Sources are telling DeSmog that on Dec. 6th a last and final attack on climate change science and the media will be mounted by Sen. James Inhofe, outgoing chair of the <a href="http://epw.senate.gov/">Envrionment and Public Works Committee</a> . </p><p>For his final committee comedy act, Inhofe has proposed an interesting line-up of witnesses, all of them, unsuprisingly, close to the fossil fuel industry-backed war on science. First up will be Dr. Bob Carter an Australian who's affiliations include the fossil fuel industry friendly (and funded ) <a href="/another-questionable-friend-of-the-friends-of-science">Institute of Public Affairs</a>. Second up is <a href="http://eteam.ncpa.org/commentaries/inhofe-correct-on-warming">David Deming</a>, an “adjunct scholar” for the National Centre for Policy Analysis which has recieved $390,000 from ExxonMobil. And finally, the rumour is that Inhofe's final witness will be <a href="http://www.businessandmedia.org/about/staff.asp">Dan Gainor</a> who has absolutely no background in climate science, unless you include his commentary on the subject for the ExxonMobil sweetheart, the Business and Media Institute. </p><p>So there you have it folks, one last kick at the can and Inhofe continues to drive his head further in the sand. Inhofe, if you're reading this, or Marc Morano (Inhofe's communications flak), who I know reads us, here's your very last chance to somewhat redeem yourself. Pull your head out of the sand, and call some scientists to testify that are not known mouthpieces for the oil-industry war on science. Heck, give me a call and I will give you some names. Or cancel your three-ring circus and go quietly into the night, you've done enough damage already. </p><p>Quick kudos to blogger <a href="http://blogforcleanair.blogspot.com/2006/11/inhofes-last-hurrah-blame-media-for.html">Frank O'Donell</a> for being first out the gate on this one.</p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/institute-of-public-affairs">Institute of Public Affairs</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/national-centre-for-policy-analysis">national centre for policy analysis</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/622">bob carter</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/623">david deming</a></div></div></div>Wed, 29 Nov 2006 23:15:56 +0000Kevin Grandia1061 at http://www.desmogblog.com